In a Funk

I just haven't blogged lately.  I'm in a funk.  I hope I can get out of it...

Here are a couple of photos I've taken of SPRING!!!

This first one I took the other night of the moon and a couple of bright planets. It was so cool!

 Dandelions!  They're everywhere!

 Peach tree blossoms!  This is something I love to see.  But they go away so quickly!

Orzo Salad with Spicy Ranch

I found this recipe on Pinterest (where else???) and added it to this week's menu.  We ALL love orzo pasta at our house, along with black beans and corn, so I thought this would be fun to try.

I made the pasta first, planning on letting it cool in the fridge while I made the dressing.  As soon as it was drained, Emily wanted to eat it.  So I gave her some of the plain pasta.  She kept coming back for more!  I was afraid I wouldn't have enough for the actual salad.

I didn't make the spicy dressing in the recipe.  I made my own by making some ranch dressing and then adding several dashes (as in, I didn't measure) of ground cayenne pepper and some more dashes of chili powder.  YUM-O!

Then I added the dressing to the pasta and tried putting it in the fridge to cool and set, but Emily wanted MORE.  I was curious to see how she'd like the dressing, so I gave her some.  Avery wanted to try it, too.  And they both LOVED it!  I went ahead and put in the drained beans and corn and gave them each a bowl, and they chowed down.

Unsure if they would want more, I put the other ingredients (which the girls do not like) in separate bowls so Rob and I could add what we wanted to our own salads.  I didn't add the cilantro (I'm not a huge fan) and I didn't have cherry tomatoes, but regular ones worked fine.  I think grape tomatoes could have worked great.  

So, in the words of Emily:  "This is the stuff!"  

Orzo Salad with Spicy Buttermilk Dressing (recipe from Little Birdie Secrets)

• 1 cup uncooked orzo
• 1 cup frozen whole-kernel corn, thawed and drained
• 12 cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 3 green onions, sliced
• 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro, divided
• 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 2 tablespoons light sour cream
• 2 tablespoons canola mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 peeled avocado, cut into 8 wedges
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

Preparation:

• 1. Cook orzo according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain and rinse; drain well. Place orzo, corn, and next 3 ingredients (through beans) in a large bowl; toss.
• 2. Combine buttermilk, 2 tablespoons cilantro, and next 8 ingredients (through garlic) in a small bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Drizzle over orzo mixture; toss. Top with avocado; garnish with remaining cilantro and parsley.

Connect

As each new year begins, I mentally make plans of what I'd like to accomplish in the new year.  It's a fresh start, a new beginning, a virtual clean slate just waiting to be filled with great things.

And it seems that each time a new year rolls along, the things I had planned never come to light.

"Broken resolutions."  That's what they're called.  Sort of like broken promises to yourself.  Nothing like breaking promises to yourself to make you feel like a chump.

This year, instead of a resolution (or a promise that's going to get broken in about a month), I'd like to create a theme for the year.  My mom has inspired me to do this.  She chooses a word for the year and works on things with herself and with relationships with others that go along with this word.  This year I'm going to do this (even though I've chosen a word in previous years and then did nothing with it).

And this year I'm telling you about it.  I'm telling you because I want to share it with you.  I'm telling you because I'm going to be stepping out of my comfort zone a bit and I hope you can have patience with me.

The word (or goal or theme or promise) of 2012 is CONNECT.

I hope I can keep my promise to myself and I hope I can share some of what I'm doing with you!

By the way, if you'll scroll down a bit and look on the right at the blogs of my friends and family, you'll see a blog called Mom's Point of View.  I was a guest blogger today!  :)

Making Things

I'm still trying to be crafty. It is a struggle! But it makes me happy to have made something.

I made these advent calendars for the girls.  I've been wanting to do this since Emily was a baby, but I felt she wasn't ready to eat just one piece of candy each day.  I wasn't sure if Avery was ready either, but she did great!  In fact, she went several days without eating candy and then had a day where she'd play catch up and eat several pieces at once.  Emily didn't think it was very cool that Avery saved her pieces and at a bunch all at once.  She tried to save her candy but just couldn't do it.

See that little stocking on the right of the fireplace?  That's my childhood stocking!  My mom made each of us kids our own stocking.  This is something I'd like to do for the girls this year.  That way there won't be any "Hey, that's MY stocking!  No, that's yours, this one's mine!". 

Another thing I worked on is a way to keep my earphones untangled.  I have this one pair of earphones that came with my iPod that work just fine, but Avery chewed off one of the speakers, so it only had one working ear piece.  I usually only used one anyway, so no biggie.  I use them in my laptop at night when I can't sleep and I watch shows.  I lay on one side and put the earphone in the other ear. 

Anyway, these things got TANGLED!  It was a mess. 

On Pinterest, I found where someone had taken their earphones and used embroidery thread to create a sort of cover for their earphones.  The cover made it so the phones were less likely to tangle.  It was a bit of a flashback to junior high when I saw that the pattern was basically a friendship bracelet pattern.  This particular pattern was called Chinese Staircase. 

I received a new pair of earphones for Christmas and that day I began making my cover.  The girl that posted the picture of her earphones said it took her less than a day to do this.  Apparently this girl has no kids or laundry and doesn't eat or make food for others because this thing actually took me a week to complete! 

Looks cool, eh?  It was fun, challenging, and a learning experience.  Next time I do something like this, I'm going with ONE color.  Less to think about.  I'm still trying to figure out how to finish the edges to it doesn't all come unraveled.  I've got glue on the knots I tied, but I'm too scared to cut off the ends in case it all comes apart.

New Year's Eve Sunshine!

The girls have been getting cabin fever.  I don't blame them since it's hard for me to get out of the house and with the weather being so pretty (sunshiny and above 55°). 

Emily rode her scooter

Avery balanced on the curb (in her Native American pants, lol)

I love my girls!

Magic

Christmas, part 3 of 3

Before the girls got up and after Santa stopped by, I got a picture of the pretty tree and gifts.

 Those reindeer are very messy.  I did not know this about them.

 A Christmas Story played on the TV in the background as we opened presents.

 Avery sat on a bow and it stuck to her bum.  I do have to say that this was not my favorite present.

Christmas, part 2 of 3

Rob's parents came over on Christmas Eve to celebrate Christmas with us.  It was a quiet evening, WAY different than with my family.  We were missing several cousins and aunts and uncles.  It just didn't work out so we could all get together, but we had fun nonetheless!

Grandpa got to spend some time with the girls.

Rob told the story of the birth of Jesus.  

 Then the girls opened their gifts from their grandparents.

 After they left, the girls set out a snack for Santa and his reindeer.  There were three cookies, a glass of water, two carrots, 9 slices of cheese, and a handful of green onions.

 Emily wrote a note:  "Dear Santa, 3 cookies toonight and veggies for the reindeer."

Christmas, part 1 of 3

My side of the family got together for Christmas the weekend before Christmas.  When we get together, you can always count on lots of laughter, hugs, tickles, and inside jokes.  I feel bad for anyone that joins in our get-togethers and tries to keep up.  It's madness!

Nana and Grumpa brought the kids some light sticks.  So fun!

 Uncle Michael handed out the gifts.  I love how the little kids lined up to watch.

 These are my siblings:  (me), little brother Jason, biggest brother Aaron, big brother Michael, and little sister Kelly. 

 See, we're all sort of weird.

Some things I've made...

I haven't been able to share things I've been making because they were a secret!  I was busy working on presents for my mom and dad's birthdays. 

I made this sign for my dad's office.  This was my original idea.  Pinterest had no influence on this craft!  It has signs for any mood the doctor might be in:

I made these stars for my mom.  She likes stars.  I did get the star idea from Pinterest, but it was my idea to include music that had the word "star" in it. 

 And this fall banner was another idea from Pinterest.  I had fun making it.

Look at me craftin'!!!

Spooky!

I saw the idea for this frame on Pinterest and I've been wanting to try it for a week or so.  I still have string left over from the previous project and I had the frame in my closet.

I was going to put scrapbook paper in the background, but I didn't have any that would work.  I came across a sheet of black construction paper and I sprinkled it with water and rubbed soot from the fireplace on it.  I like how it turned out!

Gettin' Kinda Crafty!

I made a craft from Pinterest yesterday!  And I love how it turned out. 

We had the wood in our garage, but I had to actually saw myself a piece.  Yes, I sawed.  It was hard, but fun!  And that explains the board's crookedness.  But don't look at that.

I printed off the letter h (for our last name) and taped it to the board.  At first I thought about drawing the shape I wanted, but then wondered how I was going to erase the lines after the nails were pounded in.  Printing the shape is the way to go.  

After taping the paper to the board, trying to get it as centered and straight as possible, I penciled some dots for where I was going to place the nails.  Some dots were measured with a ruler, like on the straight part of the letter, and then I just placed dots along the curves. 

I didn't string the string in any particular pattern, I just wanted to make sure each nail got some string wrapped around it.  I also wanted to make sure there was string on the outer part of the shape, just to give it a finished look. 

I think this took me an hour (minus the sawing part.  I won't say how long that took).  I would recommend tearing the paper off after the nails are in.  I left the paper on until after I strung it and it was difficult getting the paper out from under the string. 

This is exciting for me!  The corner where this is displayed is pretty much the most decorated part of the whole house.  It's sad, I know, but I'm working on it!  My Pinterest challenge is going to help me with that!
My little project was literally made with blood, sweat, and tears.  And crayon. 

• the blood:  After I was all finished, I had propped up against the oven door, on the floor (because that's where we were working), and Avery fell on top of it, with her head.  She's okay, very little-to-no blood.  Several of the nails were bent, but I was able to bend them back easily.
• the sweat:  from the sawing, of course.  It's a good workout!  Too bad I can't saw with my left hand.  I could totally be buff.
• the tears:  from when Avery fell on it. 
• and the crayon:  Emily traced around the whole letter with a blue crayon and then stated, "Mom!  I connected the nails!"  I guess she thought they needed connecting.  I was able to get the crayon off with a Magic Eraser (LOVE those things!  They really ARE magic!).

Pinterest

I blame my mom.  It's her fault.  She got me hooked on this site called Pinterest.  And I'm so glad she did!  It's hard to explain, but basically it's a huge "pin board" of things people find interesting.  Hence, Pinterest (I totally just figured that out at 1am, feeling slightly cool from that last Xanax I took...)  So, you peruse these pins, which are pictures of these interesting things, and if you find it interesting, you can pin it to your personal page.  It's like putting a website link into your favorites, but instead of it taking space on your computer, it's all right there.

rambling...

I have found some pretty inspirational things on there, plenty of crafts I'd like to make, and many recipes I want to try.  And this got me to thinking...I would like to try something new, either from something I've found on Pinterest or not, and I'd like to do this at least once a week.  Or maybe once a month.  Whatever fits the thing I wanna do.

Not sure if it's the Xanax talking or the lack of sleep, but I feel like this will be good for me.  Anyone want to do this with me?  Maybe we can share what we've done and things we've learned. 

It's a Diabetic Life

I have started and restarted this post, trying to figure out how to begin it.  The first thing I typed was "I'm tired."  But I'm sure people are tired of me being tired.  But it's true.  Sleeping in two- to three-hour intervals is for parents of newborns.  And apparently for the parents of a diabetic kid.

Then I tried starting with "Diabetes sucks!"  But everyone knows that.  It's not something that goes away.  It's not something I can fix.  It is constant.  It's there first thing in the morning, at each meal, between meals, before/during/after P.E., after school, the few hours between dinner and bedtime, and it's there during those quiet, dark, lonely, hours of the night.  And if you add any kind of sickness to it, it gets complicated.  Like it's not already complicated.  Diabetes sucks!

I almost started today's post with "Emily is beginning to recognize her lows!"  But she's not really.  She has caught a couple of lows on her own, but mostly when she says, "I feel low..." it really means, "I want a snack.  I hope I'm low." 

She has the continuous glucose monitor that works pretty well, but she hasn't had it for over two weeks.  I didn't order her supply of sensors soon enough.  I thought there was another box, but there wasn't.  And then the CGM company needed us to sign an assignment of benefits, even though this is the third time we've ordered from them.  Stupid paperwork.  Seriously, just send me one sensor at least so my kid doesn't have to have so many finger sticks in the night (and I can get some sleep).  But now they have their paper signed, hopefully we'll get her order by the first part of next week. 

But really, diabetes aside, we're doing pretty good.  Emily started kindergarten, Rob is taking some online classes to finish his degree, Avery is getting some quality time with me during the day, and I am trying to stay ahead of the laundry. 

I just laughed as I typed that last one.  I'm in a never-ending race with laundry and I'm always losing.  The laundry plays dirty and is always tripping me.  I can't keep up. 

I should update my blog...

I started this update LAST week and just now finished the post. So now I need to update my update... Let's see, what's been going on since the last update that involved snow? Well, it's now SPRING (my favorite season) and the girls are playing outside more and enjoying each other. Which is just a shocker, because Emily is usually annoyed with Avery. Here are some photos of the weeks gone by: Avery following her Grumpa: Avery looking at her name written in chalk: Tea party with Nana! Avery thought it was so fun to "clink" cups! We wrote "HOPE" on our hands for Diabetes Awareness. We hope for a cure! We now have a sandbox, which really means we have sand in our kitchen. Rob started our garden. He had to start it twice because the wind blew our little greenhouse over and dumped all the pots and their seeds out. The beans sprouted first! I found a cute template to make our own popcorn bags! So cute! We now have a tradition where we pop pocorn and eat from the bag whenever it's time to change Emily's sensor. This distracts her and keeps her mind off what I'm doing to her. "Don't take my picture!!!"