i've been wanting to post for...oh....months now, but life keeps happening. and although i enjoy writing and sharing in this space, well, i'll just skip the annoying reasons that don't mean much to you and get on with the recipe.
i made this soup for some friends and they asked for the recipe. instead of typing it out and emailing it to them, i thought this might be a better way to share it with a few more of you who might enjoy it.
Chicken Curry Soup
(boring title. maybe max's commentary on it might make for a better title: "It looks gross but tastes good Soup")
Procure:
3 onions chopped
4 T. minced garlic (several cloves? i usually use the jarred stuff. yes, i'm a heathen.)
1 stick butter
4 T. curry powder
1 t. cumin
4 c. chicken stock
3 c. half and half
4 c. chicken
4 c. cooked rice (i used brown)
1 heaping T salt
1/4 c. *gasp* sugar
Do:
-In the large pot that you will cook your soup in, so as to only dirty one pot, saute onions and garlic in butter. Once tender, add spices. I added the cumin because the soups seems to be lacking a little bit of depth that more curry wouldn't fulfill, but if you figure out what is missing, please do tell. I'm not very experienced in curry, cumin, turmeric genre of spices.
-Add stock and half and half to onion/garlic/spice mixture and heat until hot but not boiling. Finally add chicken, rice, sugar, and salt. I have issues with adding deadly, horrible white sugar to a main dish, but I did it. I dare someone to try honey or stevia and report back.
Eat. and hopefully, enjoy.
I get horribly anxious sharing recipes because i'm paranoid i'll have a typo on the ingredient list or amount and i'll poison you and your family, or worse, ruin dinner and all your hard work. and i can't follow a recipe to save my life. so, consider yourself warned.
the end.
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
it's not you. it's me.
i feel like i've kind of dropped off the face of the earth. i feel bad that there are friends who say, "we should get the kids together sometime" or that i haven't seen or talked to in too long, but that, if i'm being honest with myself, or more fairly, them, i should just admit, it's not going to happen.
i don't want to play the, "oh we're soooo busy!" card. it's lame. most people are busy these days. you either make time or you don't. and really, we're not super busy. i hate being too busy and the idea of it always stresses me out. if anything, it's because i'm becoming more aware of how much i hate to feel too busy. i'm tired most days anyways and i'm to the point where i've realized that cramming things in and trying to make room for everything and everyone makes me miserable. although there are chunks of time in most of my days that are "free", the necessary tasks that surround them must have the priority of my attention and energy.
yesterday i felt guilty because tim was off work and i stayed home and did laundry all day and puttered around the house. i could have put in an extra day at work, visited some neglected friends/family, caught up on some errands, etc. but i just stayed home. i wore my pajamas all day and wasn't busy at all. but really, i got a lot done. all the laundry, tidied the house, worked on some organization, made a nice meal (and cleaned up afterwards!), and watched an episode of downton with my love.
so it's not that we're too busy and absolutely can't fit another thing in. or that i don't like you and don't want to spend time with you. my life is just as full as i can handle right now. between family, work, school and other obligations, life is full. i wish that i could substitute you in for some of those other things, but right now, i just can't. i know that lots of other people and families are so much better at making time for so much more. i marvel at their energy and organization. but i'm just not them, as much as i wish i could be sometimes. well, i used to wish i could be that. i'm trying to be honest with myself about who i am and can be. not lazy, and striving to be and do better, but accepting who i am- a tired little hermit.
if your feelings have been hurt because you think i'm brushing you off, i'm so sorry. it's certainly not you. we are blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful people. i think about you often and try to remember you in my prayers.
Monday, January 7, 2013
OUR PETS' HEADS ARE FALLING OFF!
back in middle school, a friend and i often quoted the following scene from the movie "dumb and dumber", adapting it to whatever middle school stress we were experiencing. "i forgot my lunch! i didn't understand our math homework last night! OUR PETS' HEADS ARE FALLING OFF!"
while i didn't really care for the movie as a whole, i found this scene so comical in it's pathetic-ness. the way jim carrey falls to the floor when he comes in the door. harry's totally disheveled appearance. the extreme melodrama of it is so great, because, well, sometimes i'm a little dramatic.
and as i sit and ponder tim and i's life, as today is our anniversary, that quote and scene sums things up pretty well for us. i'm joking of course, kind of, but we have had a pretty wild last couple of months and i have taken to sometimes whining and sometimes raving that line when i'm feeling particularly overwhelmed.
i feel like we're still trying to find our footing after the "everyone got sick and both of our cars broke and had to be replaced in a week" circus that was the end of november. then the busyness of the holidays. then continued car issues. and work and life and our pets' heads falling off.
but we're in this crazy adventure together. sometimes tim's harry and i'm lloyd, sometimes i'm harry, in mannerisms and appearance. i would say here's to hoping this next year of marriage is quiet and peaceful and uneventful, but considering "give birth" is tentatively penciled in on the june calendar, i don't think that's going to happen.
cheers to our little circus and another year!
while i didn't really care for the movie as a whole, i found this scene so comical in it's pathetic-ness. the way jim carrey falls to the floor when he comes in the door. harry's totally disheveled appearance. the extreme melodrama of it is so great, because, well, sometimes i'm a little dramatic.
and as i sit and ponder tim and i's life, as today is our anniversary, that quote and scene sums things up pretty well for us. i'm joking of course, kind of, but we have had a pretty wild last couple of months and i have taken to sometimes whining and sometimes raving that line when i'm feeling particularly overwhelmed.
i feel like we're still trying to find our footing after the "everyone got sick and both of our cars broke and had to be replaced in a week" circus that was the end of november. then the busyness of the holidays. then continued car issues. and work and life and our pets' heads falling off.
but we're in this crazy adventure together. sometimes tim's harry and i'm lloyd, sometimes i'm harry, in mannerisms and appearance. i would say here's to hoping this next year of marriage is quiet and peaceful and uneventful, but considering "give birth" is tentatively penciled in on the june calendar, i don't think that's going to happen.
cheers to our little circus and another year!
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
dispatch from the troll cave
lately, i feel like we've been dealing with one cluster cuss after another. in these situations, i want to scream, "I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE RIGHT DECISION IS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM NOT A GROWN-UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! well, actually, if i'm being honest, there are some colorful descriptors scattered in there.
in my mind there's a big difference between adults and grown-ups. i'm okay with being an adult, maybe, but i don't feel like i'm capable of being a grown-up until i reach at least age 43. so just back the bleep off universe.
adults work and pay bills and maybe even have a few kids, but grown-ups make investment decisions, major career decisions, health insurance, emergency, disaster, ohmyflipwhatamisupposedtodo DECISIONS. so basically, grown ups make decisions. i hate making decisions.
yes, i broke my blog silence for that bit of brilliance.
how about you? do you feel like an adult or a grown-up? are they the same thing to you? what makes you curl up into a ball, throw a two-year-old style meltdown tantrum, or start cursing and wanting to break things to relieve stress? not that i would do any of those things in the face of major adversity. or a decision that needs to be made.
in my mind there's a big difference between adults and grown-ups. i'm okay with being an adult, maybe, but i don't feel like i'm capable of being a grown-up until i reach at least age 43. so just back the bleep off universe.
adults work and pay bills and maybe even have a few kids, but grown-ups make investment decisions, major career decisions, health insurance, emergency, disaster, ohmyflipwhatamisupposedtodo DECISIONS. so basically, grown ups make decisions. i hate making decisions.
yes, i broke my blog silence for that bit of brilliance.
how about you? do you feel like an adult or a grown-up? are they the same thing to you? what makes you curl up into a ball, throw a two-year-old style meltdown tantrum, or start cursing and wanting to break things to relieve stress? not that i would do any of those things in the face of major adversity. or a decision that needs to be made.
Friday, October 19, 2012
it was a good day
when tim used to get home and ask me how my day was, on my most charitable days, usually the best i could muster was, "we're all still alive." on the tough days, i would systematically explain exactly how and why our sons were making me crazy and beg him to find a new job. preferably one he could take two young children with him to. tim's a jerk and he never did find that totally realistic job, but thankfully our boys have grown up a little bit and my answers are usually either, "tiring" or, "actually, it was a pretty good day." i think i've even admitted to having a few great days. here's another one for the scrapbook, minus pictures, which are the best part of a scrapbook, but just take so dang long to input, upload....
-the three cousins were here this morning, as they are most mondays and fridays. max actually spends four mornings a week with those crazies, the other two at their house, and he loves his time with them and his aunt. it's been fun watching the play dynamics change over the last year and a half that i've babysat them, adding in the baby and taking out ben when he started school. i especially enjoy my time with the little lion. i feel bad because i know he gives his momma a hard time, but he is the best babe in the universe for me. it's novel to wear a baby again and it's much easier to be patient with squirmy diaper changes and messy, grabby feedings when it's only a couple times a week. little lion, you make mornings great!
-today my dad came by to stay with the kids while i ran up to school to pick up ben from early dismissal. hearing him, who is a pretty serious guy, be silly and wild with the kids makes my heart smile. i wish i would have stopped what i was doing in the kitchen to go upstairs and take a video of their fun. these days won't last forever.
-last week i was so frustrated in adoration that the boys had gotten wild yet again that i set a reminder on my phone to make an activity bag for them and then, miraculously, i actually did it right away when the reminder went off. i know this is parenting 101 stuff. but i'm forgetful and we're always rushing out the door to adoration and sometimes i would remember to grab something for them, but most days they were stuck with the same old books that have been there for a year and a half. they both spent the whole hour peacefully and QUIETLY working on things. max pushes the kneelers together to make his library, where he pretends to stamp the front cover of a huge stack of magnificat mags he lugs over from the bookshelf. it's pretty cute and it keeps him happy. i hope Jesus is entertained.
-i got a nap! i've tried to let go of my guilt over letting them watch sesame street or a movie while i go to my room and rest. not really tv watching guilt, but unsupervised children guilt. usually i get interrupted because max always poops while i'm resting and needs eighteen snacks, but a little rest is better than no rest. being on duty 24/7 was the hardest part of the last couple years and it's so good for my spirit to have a little alone time. i was always so jealous of people who have four year olds who still nap, but this is a good enough second best.
-we went to my parents' house this afternoon and most of the way there and all the way home, ben sang the Lamb of God, over and over. talent wise, ben is no all-star vocalist, but it makes me happy. happy that he gets to go to mass at school and happy that he has a "heart on fire with love for God". max of course had to ask what sin was. max asks a lot of questions about unpleasant things like Satan and bad angels and bad guys. he asks a lot of questions in general, so it's lot like he's just focusing on bad things, but he definitely has to get everything sorted out in his brain, which means he exhausts most subjects, and his mother, before he can move on. we also talked about nero, who we unanimously don't like, Christians, good soldiers, bad soldiers, and war. oy! how 'bout some sesame street talk?!
-time with my parents. i really need to take video of the boys with my parents. we spend so much time over at their house that it doesn't seem like anything special. but i know that it is and i always remind the boys that they are very blessed to be surrounded by so much love. it's hard to think about, but i know my parents won't always be around, and i want the boys to have a record of the pretty idyllic world they got to grow up in.
-max fell asleep on the way home, so i got to spend bedtime with just ben. it's always nice to have some one-on-one time. ben read the first word that i've heard him sound out: bad. he's pretty much a child genius! it seems silly to get so excited about him reading one word, especially since most of his cousins and close friends his age have been reading for a while now, but he has had very little interest in learning to read when i've offered to work with him, so i had to put my pride aside and wait for school to do it's thing. i was in the other room, getting a drink before i came in to read to him and i heard him, "b-aaaaaaa-d. bad. bad!" on the cover of "it's a bad day". when i asked him how he did it, he said, "i sounded out the letters slowly, then i made the sounds come together fast." ben loves his teacher so much and i'm so thankful she is so patient and kind. after i said our decade of the rosary, we prayed the guardian angel prayer together, his new thing, and then he wanted to sing the "Lamb of God" with him. happy momma heart for sure!
enough mushy mushy. i'll try to whine a little the next time.
-the three cousins were here this morning, as they are most mondays and fridays. max actually spends four mornings a week with those crazies, the other two at their house, and he loves his time with them and his aunt. it's been fun watching the play dynamics change over the last year and a half that i've babysat them, adding in the baby and taking out ben when he started school. i especially enjoy my time with the little lion. i feel bad because i know he gives his momma a hard time, but he is the best babe in the universe for me. it's novel to wear a baby again and it's much easier to be patient with squirmy diaper changes and messy, grabby feedings when it's only a couple times a week. little lion, you make mornings great!
-today my dad came by to stay with the kids while i ran up to school to pick up ben from early dismissal. hearing him, who is a pretty serious guy, be silly and wild with the kids makes my heart smile. i wish i would have stopped what i was doing in the kitchen to go upstairs and take a video of their fun. these days won't last forever.
-last week i was so frustrated in adoration that the boys had gotten wild yet again that i set a reminder on my phone to make an activity bag for them and then, miraculously, i actually did it right away when the reminder went off. i know this is parenting 101 stuff. but i'm forgetful and we're always rushing out the door to adoration and sometimes i would remember to grab something for them, but most days they were stuck with the same old books that have been there for a year and a half. they both spent the whole hour peacefully and QUIETLY working on things. max pushes the kneelers together to make his library, where he pretends to stamp the front cover of a huge stack of magnificat mags he lugs over from the bookshelf. it's pretty cute and it keeps him happy. i hope Jesus is entertained.
-i got a nap! i've tried to let go of my guilt over letting them watch sesame street or a movie while i go to my room and rest. not really tv watching guilt, but unsupervised children guilt. usually i get interrupted because max always poops while i'm resting and needs eighteen snacks, but a little rest is better than no rest. being on duty 24/7 was the hardest part of the last couple years and it's so good for my spirit to have a little alone time. i was always so jealous of people who have four year olds who still nap, but this is a good enough second best.
-we went to my parents' house this afternoon and most of the way there and all the way home, ben sang the Lamb of God, over and over. talent wise, ben is no all-star vocalist, but it makes me happy. happy that he gets to go to mass at school and happy that he has a "heart on fire with love for God". max of course had to ask what sin was. max asks a lot of questions about unpleasant things like Satan and bad angels and bad guys. he asks a lot of questions in general, so it's lot like he's just focusing on bad things, but he definitely has to get everything sorted out in his brain, which means he exhausts most subjects, and his mother, before he can move on. we also talked about nero, who we unanimously don't like, Christians, good soldiers, bad soldiers, and war. oy! how 'bout some sesame street talk?!
-time with my parents. i really need to take video of the boys with my parents. we spend so much time over at their house that it doesn't seem like anything special. but i know that it is and i always remind the boys that they are very blessed to be surrounded by so much love. it's hard to think about, but i know my parents won't always be around, and i want the boys to have a record of the pretty idyllic world they got to grow up in.
-max fell asleep on the way home, so i got to spend bedtime with just ben. it's always nice to have some one-on-one time. ben read the first word that i've heard him sound out: bad. he's pretty much a child genius! it seems silly to get so excited about him reading one word, especially since most of his cousins and close friends his age have been reading for a while now, but he has had very little interest in learning to read when i've offered to work with him, so i had to put my pride aside and wait for school to do it's thing. i was in the other room, getting a drink before i came in to read to him and i heard him, "b-aaaaaaa-d. bad. bad!" on the cover of "it's a bad day". when i asked him how he did it, he said, "i sounded out the letters slowly, then i made the sounds come together fast." ben loves his teacher so much and i'm so thankful she is so patient and kind. after i said our decade of the rosary, we prayed the guardian angel prayer together, his new thing, and then he wanted to sing the "Lamb of God" with him. happy momma heart for sure!
enough mushy mushy. i'll try to whine a little the next time.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
cute things i want to remember
occasionally my boys say cute things that i would like to remember. i wish i was better about writing them down, and i sometimes find odd scraps of paper floating around the house that i've scribbled something funny down on, like the night that we mapped out the plan for the band we would form, but mostly i'm just a lousy family historian. so here goes.
for the last several months, max has been really set on the idea of being "an ambulance person" when he grows up. he must think about this a lot because he will randomly ask me questions about the logistics of being an ambulance person. "where do i buy my ambulance, mom?" i explained the process of school and hiring to him and he seemed thrilled that someone would pay him for his services. tonight as we were driving home, just the two of us, completely out of the blue, he asked, "can ambulance guys get married, mom?" when i answer his questions, his response is usually, "so...okay." and i can literally here the wheels turning in his noggin, processing the new information.
ben's current future occupation is an astronaut. every night he prays for, "all the people on earth and all the people in the space station." for about a day max was willing to join him in space, but he has now gone back to ambulance person.
the other night they were talking about how when they are grown men, working at their respective jobs, they are still going to live in our house. call me a crazy little ol' italian momma, but i don't think that is such a terrible idea : )
people often ask if the boys are twins. other than ben being taller, which is hard to tell when they are constantly swirling and jumping, i guess i can understand why.
i call max "max mouse" because when he's really excited about something, he squeaks. it's pretty cute. and he really likes cheese. and he's much quieter than his older brother. i like the mouse a lot.
i used to call max "charlie puppy" when he was 2 1/2ish because when i'd call him charlie he'd morph into a puppy who was mostly cute and sweet and much better behaved and compliant than max.
tonight at dinner, a well balanced meal of dillon's chinese, ben's fortune was, "struggle as hard as you can for whatever you believe in." ben's quick and enthusiastic response was, " I BELIEVE IN GOD!" he frequently tells me that he has a heart on fire with love for God. such responsibility to help form these mighty souls i've been entrusted with.
after prayers when we were having our snuggle, squished in max's twin sized bottom bunk, max asked, "does God make super heroes?" i put on my preachy mom hat and explained that God doesn't make guys with x-ray vision or guys that turn green and muscly when angry but he does give each of us special gifts and talents that we can use to be super heroes to other people, like super kindness or super helpfulness. being a little bored by my own answer, i decided to add, "or sometimes if a person has really stinky toots, they have super stink powers." spurred by their eruption of giggles, i fought my uptight tendencies to suppress their giggles and hurry them to sleep, and continued, " and when max makes up in the morning, he has super grump powers." this went on for a bit and i tried to soak up that glorious little slice of time.
the boys are both at pretty decent ages. ben is off at school for most of the time and honestly, it's a relief having mr. needs-constant-activity-and-stimulation not always asking, "what are we going to do now?" max plays pretty well with his cousins that he spends most mornings of the week with, but also plays really well by himself. his fits are MUCH more manageable and don't escalate to anywhere near the levels they used to. tim and i have finally decided to keep them. for now.
scrapbook closed.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
crazytown journal
several friends have started doing the journal thing blog posts. i like these, but just can't bring myself to conform. so instead, i give you this series of events, which i found to be pretty comical.
after working on a few things on the computer tonight, i got up, complaining to tim that i feel like i have a million little and some big things that i need to get done. as soon as i stopped talking, an alarm went off on my phone reminding me i needed to pay bills tonight. blurg. add that to my list.
when i went to check on ben, who has a slight fever, i found that max had fallen asleep in his toy box at the end of his bed, sitting upright. at first i thought he had been woken up from the storm or had gotten up to go to the bathroom and scampered back to his room when he heard me coming. but nope. he was tanked out and i'm pretty sure he had been sitting there/sleeping for an hour and a half.
after doing several other jobs, i sat down to pay bills and eat a piece of pie/turnover that i baked up from the leftover dough and apples from max's pie on sunday. can't let it go to waste. upon taking my first bite of pie, another alarm went off on my phone-one i have set that goes off every night at 10:15 with the message that reads, "go to bed or you will hate yourself tomorrow". i never do go to bed right away, but to be caught eating dessert at my self-imposed bed time really seemed to highlight my poor decision making.
the first letter i opened was a very crisp piece of paper and when i pulled it out, it whipped up and hit me in the eye. for a solid minute i clamped my eye shut, visualizing an eye ball sliced in half. i'm still not sure if my vision is blury and if it is, if it's from exhaustion or that malicious paper. what was the bill? health insurance of course. tim brilliantly suggested i go look in the bathroom mirror. my response, "i'd rather just eat my pie."
oh, and while i had my eye squeezed closed and was envisioning my blind future, it started hailing.
fearing the task of replacing the roof again, i asked tim to join me in prayer. after we made the sign of the cross, i hesitated for a bit, distracted by my eye. tim started up without me, "bless us oh lord and....". after we prayed, not over our food but for the protection of our home, he admitted that maybe he was in fact a bit tired and should go to bed.
instead of finishing the few jobs i have left for the day, i wrote this comedy of errors out instead. and tim just came and informed me that i'll have to leave an hour early for work because i have to take the boys to his mom's house since he has to report to court for jury duty.
i'm gonna put a big ol' A++ stamp on tonight : )
oh man, i can't even make this level of weird up! before i could hit publish, i heard max fall out of his bed and had to go tend to him. he's fine. he didn't even wake up. and now i'm eating more turnover.
after working on a few things on the computer tonight, i got up, complaining to tim that i feel like i have a million little and some big things that i need to get done. as soon as i stopped talking, an alarm went off on my phone reminding me i needed to pay bills tonight. blurg. add that to my list.
when i went to check on ben, who has a slight fever, i found that max had fallen asleep in his toy box at the end of his bed, sitting upright. at first i thought he had been woken up from the storm or had gotten up to go to the bathroom and scampered back to his room when he heard me coming. but nope. he was tanked out and i'm pretty sure he had been sitting there/sleeping for an hour and a half.
after doing several other jobs, i sat down to pay bills and eat a piece of pie/turnover that i baked up from the leftover dough and apples from max's pie on sunday. can't let it go to waste. upon taking my first bite of pie, another alarm went off on my phone-one i have set that goes off every night at 10:15 with the message that reads, "go to bed or you will hate yourself tomorrow". i never do go to bed right away, but to be caught eating dessert at my self-imposed bed time really seemed to highlight my poor decision making.
the first letter i opened was a very crisp piece of paper and when i pulled it out, it whipped up and hit me in the eye. for a solid minute i clamped my eye shut, visualizing an eye ball sliced in half. i'm still not sure if my vision is blury and if it is, if it's from exhaustion or that malicious paper. what was the bill? health insurance of course. tim brilliantly suggested i go look in the bathroom mirror. my response, "i'd rather just eat my pie."
oh, and while i had my eye squeezed closed and was envisioning my blind future, it started hailing.
fearing the task of replacing the roof again, i asked tim to join me in prayer. after we made the sign of the cross, i hesitated for a bit, distracted by my eye. tim started up without me, "bless us oh lord and....". after we prayed, not over our food but for the protection of our home, he admitted that maybe he was in fact a bit tired and should go to bed.
instead of finishing the few jobs i have left for the day, i wrote this comedy of errors out instead. and tim just came and informed me that i'll have to leave an hour early for work because i have to take the boys to his mom's house since he has to report to court for jury duty.
i'm gonna put a big ol' A++ stamp on tonight : )
oh man, i can't even make this level of weird up! before i could hit publish, i heard max fall out of his bed and had to go tend to him. he's fine. he didn't even wake up. and now i'm eating more turnover.
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