Tuesday, April 27, 2010

At Lunch This Afternoon I Was Thinking That...

The inside of the bottom of your shirt can be used like a tissue, in a pinch, when your son has a snotty nose. This saves the shoulders of your shirt, your face, and various other parts of your body from getting said boogies on them. Kyra said, "no way" when I suggested it, but then once I reasoned with her she decided it wasn't such a bad idea.

Flylady has some good ideas, especially for the organizationally-challenged-trying-to-keep-it-together moms like me. It's been years since I've been to her site (and I'm not even going to go look it up so I can link it to this post), but I found some of the stuff I used when I started to get it together after Tasha was born. Apparently that's my cycle: fly OK, get pregnant, lose all ability to function properly, have baby, live in disorganized chaos but new baby bliss for a few months, then decide to get it back together. I'm at the trying to get it back together stage right now.

I have a very organized, yet out of date, folder than I need to start using again. I'm resisting because Flylady calls it a "control journal". I don't like the word control. I need to rename that dang thing. It holds all those forms I need to fill out, phone lists, agendas from meetings, etc. Any ideas?

I've become a scampi expert. I cook it all the time for lunch. Sometimes I'll use chicken, other times I'll use shrimp or talapia. Basically, whatever I happen to have in the fridge. And by "happen to have" I actually mean, whatever I saved from the previous nights dinner (chicken), bought at Costco to devour myself (shrimp), or received in a box-o-meat from Treasure Box (talapia). Anyway, it's yummy. I'm eating a talapia verson right now. It's my least favorite.

Julie and Julia was right, "everything tastes better with butter". I think it was Julie quoting Julia, but it doesn't really matter. Seriously, butter is yum.

People swear up and down that you must rinse your quinoa before cooking it. I'd agree, because it does feel better to rinse it, but I don't know that it really affects the taste. I'm eating some right now that I didn't rinse and it doesn't really taste bitter like people say it should. You should also know that Costco sells quinoa now. It's over by the rest of the 20-50 pound bags of grains, only the quinoa is in a nice little portable package. I'd go look up how big it is, but I'm too lazy. It's about 2 times the size of a regular Bob's Red Mill package, and, it is Bob's.

Even after all this focus on food I'm losing weight. I'm 5 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight. Yeah me. The only drawback is that when I stop nursing I typically gain at least 10 back. I guess I'm at least aware of it this time around. You've heard the term "yoyo dieting"? I wonder what it's called when you gain all your pregnancy weight, lose it all, then gain some of it back. And, I wonder if that takes it's toll on your body, mind, and spirit just like the yoyo dieting critics claim it does. If so, what kind of chaotic state am I in if I've gained and lost over a hundred pounds in the last year? No wonder I'm a mess.

I don't think I believe in "teething". We're on round four of cranky baby with snotty nose, drooling mouth, upset tummy, nursing all night and sleepless days, and, still no teeth. I just happen to be in the crowd that up sells the teething theory so now I've fallen for it. The girls just got their teeth and all was well. So, either teething is for crap, or boys are a big pain in the bee-hind.

I enjoy hanging freshly laundered diapers on the line to dry. I put them up with yellow stains all over the place, then, like magic, I come back in an hour and the stain is gone. The sun is amazing and we have so much of it here in Arizona! I wonder if we could use it for something really constructive like creating energy...

While cleaning off our kitchen desk top (which I have decided to reclaim as my own since the girls have a gillion other places to keep their things) I found a box of note cards. Then I found a bag of note cards from Ikea. Then there were a few "green" cards I bought from Target wrapped in a nice hemp cord. Finally I discovered a set that must have been given to us from either DMS or DVLC, possibly made by one of the girls. Oh, and on the island is a box of thank you cards I purchased after PT was born so I could thank people for their gifts and service. This moring, in my sling-baby-wearing organizational moment, I cleared off the desktop, dusted it, gathered all of these cards together, and placed them all neatly on top. Do you think I'll start sending thank you's? Probably not. But consider yourself lucky if you get one. It really is a goal of mine since I appreciate ever note anyone has sent me. I should probably be doing that now instead of blogging.

I bet Bill has stopped reading by now :) That's cool. I love him anyway.

I still have to say in my mind "i before e, except after c" EVERY TIME I write the word receive. That's the 3rd time I've done it this post. The really stupid thing about that saying is that you say it and then you have to think the opposite. Because you've written a 'c', you have to put the 'e' before the 'i'. Did I ever write the post about this rule and the lame commentary I found from the editor of the online dictionary I use? Dumb, dumb, dumb.

On the same note (spelling, that is), I still don't know when to use 'affect' and 'effect'. Someone explained it the last time I asked but I didn't understand it. I know I've used it wrong several times and I don't even know if I got it right above or not. I'm not sure I really care because I don't think most people even notice. It's not like their, they're and there or your and you're. Write?! (a-ha!)

I also think I need to review my comma and quotation rules. I think I use commas too often and I don't know when to use the double quotations marks (" ") or the single version (' '), except when I'm putting a quote inside a quote. That one I understand. The rest I just kind of make up as I go along or use what "looks" right. Really, I think that blogging and texting has brought generations of seemingly literate people down to a new all time low level of writing.

Talapia scampi over quinoa isn't very good. I won't make it again.

I'm still trying to figure out why Bill says it's exhausting trying to follow my brain...

7 comments:

Bill said...

Wow!! Welcome back after a week off! Good to have you back. Since you are the ‘Reading Lady’, here are a couple of things.

Talapia is actually spelled Tilapia. Go figure! Version is not spelled verson, but does it really matter? You used it’s wrong, it should have been its in this case. And last but not least, it’s morning, not moring. But hey, whose counting (get it?). ( I won’t mention the two grammatical errors that were made, yes, courtesy of spellcheck, no way I cought this stuff!)
With all that being said, the shirt wiping snot trick is common knowledge if you are a guy. We just use it on ourselves. I hate it when you lose weight because I always find it. Scampi is bad. No matter what. What’s better than butter? Butter wrapped in bacon, of course. Quinoa? I still do not even know what this us. I think it’s code you women use to confuse us men. It took me 3 reads before I could even pronounce it (yes, I just said it again to make sure I can say it right). Teething is going to happen. My guess it will coincide with when Payton no longer needs to nurse! “The sun is amazing and we have so much of it here in Arizona!” Remember saying this in August when once again you beg me to move to anywhere but Arizona! Yes, I am still reading! I picture you sitting there, nodding your head as you recite “i before e, except after c”. I am sure that no one understands the use of ‘affect’ and 'effect'. They do like me; make it up as they go. If you are unsure of what set of quotes to use, refer to this rule: Just use a colon, semicolon or exclamation point! If that doesn’t fix it, you don’t need to fix it!

Love Ya!

Monique said...

Psst...Bill....you spelled caught rong! ;) LOL

H~ Hmm, your brain functions at the same level of randomness as mine, so either we are kindred spirits (and probably geniuses), or we have both been effected by the sun.

Absolutely L.O.V.E.D. this post.

Sara said...

I was wondering when the media free week was going to explode into your blog! I had some thoughts, but now I've lost them. Just glad to have you back. :-)

April said...

The problem with grammar is that if we didn't learn it when we were kids we just assume that we are wrong even if we are right. I'm constantly second guessing myself. Then if/when I check, I discover I'm usually right even when I think I'm wrong. Boy that sounds snobby, that's not what I meant. BAsically I'm saying I don't know grammar as well as I should. It's frustrating! And, don't worry I followed this whole thing perfectly. On a side note - okay, on a completely different note, I did some hand washing yesterday and I didn't die. Awesome! Yeah for me! And, the teeth will come, it is not bogus. Your peeps will support you and I fully expect my thank you note as much as you should expect mine for the meal I got last week. :)

proud parents said...

and "what this us" should be "what this is". good job english users! now get on my case for not capitalizing because I'm too lazy to use my shift key.

proud parents said...

Affect is a verb (to have an effect on). I am affected. It affects us.
Effect is a noun, and sometimes the end result of an affect. When I am affected by a flu bug, my nose develops a spectacular waterworks effect. Effective is the adverb form of the noun. It's effective at making me look like a walking Niagara Falls. Or in other words, it produces a humanoid Niagara Falls effect. But just because your illiteracy affects my sensibilities doesn't mean it should have a detrimental effect on our friendship! Are we all confused here yet?
I defect.

H said...

I would be concerned that a pregnant person followed my whole thought process perfectly, but Monique claims that we are geniouses so I'm going with that. Sara, glad to be back! Media-free week had a positive effect in our home.
Bill, "shirt wiping snot trick"? That's just plain gross. As for my spelling errors- you know I've never claimed accuracy in that department. In fact, I believe that learning phonics to teach reading has affected my abilitiy to spell correctly. While many phonics rules prove effective in reading, I believe they inhibit our ability to spell correctly. Or maybe that is just my excuse for my lame spelling these days.
Jen, how'd I do?! I need a laugh track playing right now to get the right sound effect. :)