SV Moms: Got To Break a Lot of Free Range Eggs

Yes, I too have joined the food revolution, and my special lunch meat was awful-tasting nitrate-free bologna.

How though, does one get one's family on board, that's what I want to know? (I can't believe I'm writing this as I watch a commercial for a chicken sandwich which includes two fried chicken patties, bacon and cheese...does it make it less or more healthy that there is no bun?). I jumped on the healthy bandwagon first, and considering I do 90% of the shopping and cooking, it's a no brainer. Sure I often have to hit 2 or 3 stores for local produce, sometimes stopping at Whole Foods after school drop-off and before work, but I happen to love grocery shopping and cooking when I have leisure time. The CSA box was always a fun surprise, too, although found myself eating about 75% of the produce myself. Roasted turnips or kale stir-fry anyone? Now onto the family.

I started with my son, shamelessly taking advantage of his desire to please his mommy. No more than five ingredients on the label, I instructed him, and you must be able to pronounce all the words. It was as simple as that, sort of. Since he was a precocious 6 year old, he got it immediately, and probably for our next 2, maybe 3 shopping adventures he diligently checked labels. I do try to remind him occasionally (see failed attempts below to influence dad's shopping), but shockingly reading labels is even less fun for kids than adults. He's not a big dessert man, though, and usually eager willing (with a dramatic sigh) to try new foods, which helps in my health quest. He's also thankfully not a real fan of the school lunches, and will pretty much inhale most veggies with ketchup or ranch dressing.

Son number two is a little more difficult, what with his sugar addiction, intense love of macaroni and cheese and the ability to do a complete 360 on what he likes from one day to the next. For fruit, we're now reduced to a single type of red grapes, bananas and very small green apple pieces what with the loose tooth and all. He is not a dip man, so that little trick flew out the window. I had something up my sleeve, though, the kid seems to have a real affinity for cookbooks, and just loves reading out loud, which is so adorable. He has become my sous chef, and the deal is when he's 10 I will be his assistant. We've made fruit kabobs and homemade fish sticks, and chicken soup with dumplings was our latest concoction. It's so true people tend to eat more of what they make, as in this case the dumplings with whole wheat flour was a total fail, and my pickiest eater was the only one to eat them. His favorite part of any cooking class in our house is cracking the eggs. We make a lot of quiche. He still rejects much of what I make, but I at least can get him to take a miniscule taste.

Guess who the most difficult convert is? Sadly my husband hates cooking, and will resort to grilled cheese or fried egg sandwiches when left to his own devices. It's not for lack of skill, just bad childhood memories. Grocery shopping ranks right there between cooking and scrubbing toilets, but he will head out for a gallon of milk or bananas, two critical staples in our household. For some reason, though, the man refuses to drive the extra mile or make two stops for local produce or hormone-free milk. Oddly he prefers to get home at a reasonable hour. I know, I know, everything in moderation, but get a load of the latest haul: cookies and cream pudding (which I am expected to make), shark gummies for school snacks, and "the kids really wanted frosted flakes and were good so I got them each a bag of cookies." It's like for six months my rants about high fructose corn syrup and blue dye have gone in one ear and out the other. In my annoyingly passive aggressive way I query Keegan as to the number of recognizable ingredients, but how can my organic gummy bears and homemade granola bars compete? Thank goodness they all love oatmeal, at least every 5th day in Donovan's case.

It it wrong that I hid the cereal and stuffed the easter eggs with the gummy sharks? As the little red hen says, if they aren't going to help, they have to eat what I serve. (It's quite possible that quote is wrong.)

Original Silicon Valley Moms Blog post published April 18, 2010

Find the Difference

My kids love those activity books, especially the mazes and the pictures where the dog has an extra left ear or green collar or something. Today you get to play along. Take a close look at the two photos, and see if you can spot the difference. Hint, the second dog is missing something.

Photo 1

Photo 2

Got it? If you guessed the second dog has no cojones, er, means to make new babies, you are correct.

Let me introduce you to Tiro del Gol Luke Zac Sherry Lee Skinner Pelton (translation goal shot plus our middle names plus my maiden name). Nickname "Smoothie" what with is mix of breeds. He was the only guy at the shelter who was labeled "cross-breed" - they could not even hazard a guess as to his mix. He's just a bit over 20 pounds, Brian's first little dog. He's been wanting a new one since Pele died, and the kids really wanted a little one. He is a cutie, but seems to have gotten a second wind and just keep clicking his little nails around the house. Think daddy needs to rock him to sleep.

Poor guy has to wear a cone all week and keeps running into things. He's about 8 months old so no accidents or chewing most likely, but so far he's tried to eat a a balloon and we found him walking around with a pen in his mouth

This was taken with the iPhone Hipstamatic app, which I now cannot get enough of. Think I'm going to need to buy more options.

In The land of the blind, yada yada yada

I saw a post (tweet, facebook, I don't know) that dissed people with 300 followers and 269 friends calling themselves a "social media expert." What about 590 followers? How about if probably half of those are random companies I've never heard of? Guess if I was really a social media expert I'd at least have the link to that post right at my fingertips.

Tonight, though, someone wanted to hire me to build up their web, facebook, twitter and myspace (myspace, I'm afraid of that space) presence. So I sent an email with my thoughts, then spoke with the business owner for about 20 minutes on what I think he needed to do. We ended the conversation talking about my mom who had to go to the hospital yesterday. Yes, it was my brother's store, and my dad who wants to hire me, and no, I'm not going to take anything from my brother's fledgling store or my dad/free babysitter. They spent way to much money on a website and I see such potential.

You can see why so many want to call themselves social marketing experts. When someone has barely heard of twitter and you start talking about mommybloggers who will crash a website with a single mention and link to a new small business, you feel a teensie bit of prowess. So I'm going to see what I can do, and hope we can build him a bigger audience that this little blog o' mine. If anyone of the real experts out there want to pitch in, well, free toys are in the cards. First order of business, a header.

Happy Thanksgiving

I kind of slacked on my gratitude posts and activities, and one day, someday, I may do the nablomepo thingy, but just not this year I guess. I did want to say what I am thankful for, since this year may end on a much better note than I imagined a few months ago.

It goes without saying, even though I'm saying it, that I am so thankful for my family. My two wonderful boys who make me laugh and smile so much. My husband who is such a great daddy and wonderful person. My parents who I know will always be there for us and who take my kids to garage sales even while complaining we have too much stuff. Here are a few other things I am so thankful for.

1. My health...I'm attempting to run/jog/walk three miles tomorrow having barely even used my Wii fit, and I'm grateful that at my advanced maternal age I know I can walk even if I can't run.


2. Our jobs...we are definitely underemployed, but that far beats unemployed.


3. The fact that I don't have to cook the whole thanksgiving dinner, but still get to make a few dishes. We're joining friends for the feast and I'm bringing green beans and an apple pie.


4. My first even toaster oven, is that too superficial?


5. The place I live, where we can go to the beach, the mountains or the city all within an hour of our place and get real, healthy food from a variety of sources, including or own garden.

Happy Thanksgiving Y'all, may your turkey or tofurkey be moist this year.

Putting the Fun in Dysfunctional

When my whole family gets together, which is not that often these days, about the only thing we can agree on is nobody wants to sit next to our mom. She loves to talk, bless her heart. Thank goodness for grandpa and the grand kids. It's funny because even though she drives me a bit crazy, it didn't occur to me that my brother and sister would have the same attitude. My brother has always been closer to her, while I was most definitely daddy's little girl, so it was my little brother's attitude that surprised me more. Embarrassingly, I often still am, when I need money or a job, but my dad seems to think it's time to grow up, gosh darn it. My mom always has good intentions, but we can't help but hope it is not our kids, or our spouses, or ourselves, who's actions make them her current target of complaint. Is it wrong to be secretly thrilled to hear her go on about my niece and nephew drinking soda while my kids stick to milk and water? Who cares if the truth is she buys them all soda when they're out, like the spoiling grandma she is, even if she thinks she's stricter than her own kids? She manages to skirt around and take a very roundabout approach when it comes to criticizing the person she's actually talking to (Donovan is doing so much better than last year, we just give him anything he wants and he's stopped throwing fits.)

As strange as my mom can be, we had a pretty normal childhood, a pretty good one I have to say, although we both question why it is that two of her three kids can't seem to support themselves? Was there something they could have done? I like to think I am examining my childhood more not to blame my parents for anything, but to make sure I emulate the good and make changes as needed. My mom protected me from death, from illness, from most bad things. It was clear by my late teens and early twenties I had been over protected, and I'm glad my husband has chosen a more direct approach with our kids. When our neighbor died it took all my courage to walk over to console her widower. I then proceeded to hem and haw about how to tell the kids, approaching my husband with my dilemma. "Diane died" was his answer, after sitting the kids down. "Where is she? She's in the ground." Done, and done. We took them when we had to put our dog to sleep, which would freak my mom out to no end. It gave them closure, though, and while they may not exactly understand death (who does?) they feel comfortable talking about it.

We have a pretty functional family, with just enough crazy and disturbing anecdotes to create laughter and shock, but we are not even close to the league of the family in Jonathan Trooper's novel This is Where I Leave You. We've had divorce, infertility and an abortion, but have bypassed infidelity and punching each other or anyone else in the face. As I mention in my review over here, I'm a bit envious of their directness, their raw emotions that spill out during their seven days together. My mom may have had the Joy of Sex on her bookshelf, but none of us want to hear intimate details of each other's lives. I'd like to think I'm raising my kids to be somewhere in between.

This is part of the Silicon Valley Moms blog virtual book club. Head over there for more stories inspired by this captivating book. And full disclosure, I got a free copy of this book.

Cousins are the Best

My nephew has been visiting for the past few weeks, and it's been a whirlwind of fun. He's been staying out here for years, flying out alone for the first time last year. He's a sweet kid, who my kids adore, and I can't help but want to be the awesome aunt when he's out here. Most of the time he stayed at my parents, but this is the most time he's spent over here at his cousins, sometimes for the entire day. He went to Brian's soccer camp with Keegan and Donovan, swam with us at our friends' houses and in the local pools, and strived to keep up with my speed demons on their scooter.

He spent a couple evenings at our house, and I made these yummy dinners. Steak, corn, rice (I haven't seen anyone eat this much rice since I went to Japan), and banana splits. Of course Jordan didn't want bananas, Donovan didn't want whipped cream, and I had to practically bribe Keegan to try the hot fudge (he loved it).

The boys all got matching haircuts (well, at least haircuts).

They rode on bumper boats and we played mini-golf thanks to grandpa.

And finally slept. This is way more peaceful than it looks. The kids sleep great at grandma & grandpas (well, Donovan crawls in with grandpa), but it took me an hour of settling them down and playing lullabyes on my iPhone to get them to sleep. Last year Jordan kept changing his mind when bedtime came, making my kids cry when they couldn't sleep together. We had them sleep in the living room in the hopes that would keep my kids from crawling into our bed (yes, mostly Keegan still does that, when he's half asleep and we're both asleep). Jordan hated waking up alone, so I ended up carrying my kids back a couple times, cleaning up dog pee and folding laundry for a couple hours in the middle of the night. The glamorous life of a mom.

Bye Jordan, we will miss you. See you in Dallas.

More than ready for the final pull-up

Two days dry. That's the current count according to mom for number of dry nights for Donovan. According to Donovan, it's been 11 nights. It doesn't help that he throws away the evidence each morning before I get up, although that is so much more preferable than leaving them on the floor for the dogs to eat. Gross. Somehow he managed to convince me to let him sleep without a pull-up last night. He woke up in our bed as usual, and had new pjs on so I asked if he'd peed in his bed last night. "No mommy. I was hot so wanted to change into shorts pajamas and when I got up to change I tripped over my pajama pants to change my pajamas. That's why I'm wearing new pajamas this morning. I didn't pee last night." He also had a bridge he wanted to sell me.

Why is this kid so much harder to potty train than the last one? Keegan was potty trained at 2 1/2 with very little effort on our part, and even two weeks in nighttime pull-ups was one week more than necessary. Donovan was just barely trained by three, and frankly he was only "trained" so we could start him at the preschool or he would have lost his spot. Now at 5 he's still in pull-ups at night. Frankly I'm at a loss as to how to train a kid at night, and the doctor says kids need to be producing some enzyme or something before they can stop peeing at night, so there really is nothing you can do. But boy are we ready, and poor Donovan, who still looks adorable in his pull-ups, especially when he jumps into guitar hero and forgets his pjs, is tired of having to put them on each night.

The family remains helpful in their own special ways. Grandma has diagnosed him with a genetic issue, given that my husband has surgery "down there" so must be related. She is determined to find "the problem." He's also one of these kids who still occasionally has an accident when he's distracted or in the car and can't get to a potty quick enough. Keegan helps by sniffing his crotch periodically and yelling out "he peed!" or "he didn't pee!"

We just keep on buying more pull-ups, and not the generic brand mind you, which sadly failed the overnight leak test. Like they say, no kid ever goes to college in diapers, although at this rate he may be starting kindergarten in pull-ups.

This post was inspired by the Parent Bloggers Network and The Potty Project from the Pull-ups brand, which has got to be amusing with a name like that.

Happy Four Glasses of Wine

Or Chag Sameach as they say in the old country, uh, I mean in Hebrew.

So why is this night different than all other nights? The kids and I are playing on the computer and I'm ready for my wine, don't see any difference so far.

Be honest, does my Seder table look a little too Easterish? Perhaps I should have snapped up the "Passover Bouquet" at Lucky's.

Free coloring Haggadah for anyone who can guess what is under the placemats.

I'm finally ready to start throwing dinner parties. I love my house and even performed a mad cleaning spree. I almost felt like I was a real live Seder host when my little group of 7 suddenly threatened to grow to almost 20. Wow, could I handle that, and more importantly, did I have enough chairs and wine glasses? Surprisingly I happen to have enough tables, and room to seat 20. 99 cent sturdy wine glasses from Cost Plus came to the rescue a it was becoming a BYOC event.
Here's the adult table, actually the parents table since the grandparents have get to sit with the kids.

Sadly, this did become like so many other nights when most of the guests canceled (due to their kids being sick, I'm keeping the paranoia at bay so far). I was purposely making this a very kid-friendly event (for my own kids, I'm sure the others can sit through a story about frogs and boils without whining), but forget that. No families next year (may we be in Israel :). But no worries, we're still on for Friday night, provided I sacrifice that lamb (shank) tonight. Now if only I can find my Seder plate, custom painted by yours truly. Not like I won't have plenty of other opportunities to use it.


Check out the puzzle I bribed the kids with when I dragged to Alef Bet, the only Jewish store in the entire Bay Area as far as I know.

It's a two-sided puzzle, here's the back. The only plagues they had was a $35 pyramid of plagues, so the dollar store came to the rescue with plastic frogs and stuffed cows.

Here's the menu, and I'll let you know how the food went down, so to speak.


Gefilte fish (I confess, I love this stuff)
Matzoh ball soup, using modified version of this recipe)
Feta and tomato salad (from friend)
Quinoa Fritters (from SJ Mercury food section)
Smoked turkey, courtesy of Grandpa
Matzoh stuffing
Mashed potatoes
Roasted Broccoli
Flourless chocolate cake (from friend)
Chocolate-Covered Caramelized Matzoh Crunch
Vanilla ice cream for my picky kids

Our only tradition is FOOD

Whenever we visit my husband's mom I have this strong desire to fill up seventy-five bags of trash to throw out. Although she lives alone, her two fridges and three (yes three) freezers are packed to the brim, not to mention the craft room chock full of candy she's just made. So of course since we are visiting, she runs out a buys a lot more - stuffed salmon and these fried apple yummy things for a Hannukah dinner, lots of fruit and juice for the kids, lots more milk, whipping cream and vanilla ice cream just in case those are needed for the two giant pumpkin pies. Putting leftovers away, not to mention finding something in one of those places, can take up to 15 minutes and two frozen hands. But we just love the food so who can complain.

She taught my kids how to make apple smiles (apple slices, peanut butter and marshmellow), which my son insisted on making the next day, only so he could eat marshmallows for breakfast.

They also dipped cheesecake squares in rick dark chocolate, and decorated those with swirls of white.

And just for fun we all made butter molds.

Christmas dinner brought more salmon (hard to see, by my nephew put a peace sign with the extra dough on top of the baked salmon, over ruling his wife's suggestion of the middle finger),

pork roast, two types of cranberry sauce and my first ever green bean casserole. It didn't come out so good, but was so easy to make I might try again in a smaller dish (the only ingredients were bread crumbs, butter and pepper, heavy cream and blue cheese -

and of course green beans). I swear I've never seen so much homemade candy: rocky road, peppermint/pistachio/cranberry/white chocolate bark, two types of chocolaty toffee truffle goodies, beautiful patterned chocolate peanut butter bark, maraschino cherry chocolate, and several types of cookies, including the "million dollar peanut butter cookies." These won the Pillsbury baking contest million dollar prize, and are certainly good, but a million dollars? And of course since my MIL made them she had to drizzle melted peanut butter chips and chocolate on them.

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas. We're of to enjoy the new snow and give the kids their first taste of skiing.

What are the Rules Anyway?

I've been reading a wonderful writing book, Writing Motherhood, and I'm surprised how much I love it. I've even finally starting using the lovely notebook my husband bought me last year, which was such a nice recognition of my "writing." When I started this blog I bought (from the discount rack, admittedly) and checked out some books on writing, but I didn't find any I really got into. Not surprisingly, I can relate to this one so much more. It's like listening to a good mom friend talk to you about her own writing in order to help with yours. No judgement, there is acknowledgement of our varied reasons and lack of time for writing as moms. And speaking of her relaxed and open attitude, one of the first things she says is to throw out the rules of writing. While this is highly applicable to her assignments, which she encourages us to hand write and write for our own eyes only, from what I see, it also applies to blogging.

I don't have a problem throwing out rules, even though I'm actually pretty good at following rules, and most of my life found that the easiest path, especially in school. That was not exactly true when it came to card games with my sister and brother, but that doesn't count. However I've found that the older I get the less apt I am to follow rules, especially stupid ones at work, which may have gotten me in trouble at times, but certainly revealed who my true supporters were. Breaking the rules can be fun, more exciting, and sometimes lead to much more creative solutions.

Perhaps that's why I have a hard time imposing rules on my kids. Plus I don't remember many while growing up, and we all turned out fine. Actually, the rules before the age of 12 were no sugar or white flour and no TV, and after 12 as long as we got good grades we could do whatever we wanted. I think back on these as I feed my kids ice cream for breakfast while we're in the middle of a 4 hour long TV marathon. My excuse is my kid just had his tonsils out yesterday . What was always implied, though, was basic respect for other people, which is what I want them to learn. In our house that translates to wrestle with your brother if you both are having fun, but treat him how he wants to be treated.

I want my kids to be able to follow rules, but to also understand when not to, either to do the right thing, or just have a little fun. I do worry that is simply my excuse for my inability to set and enforce rules, plus at the age of 4 that is a bit too subtle, so we have basically one hard and fast rule in our house - no hitting! And even that is hard for me to enforce. Donovan likes to hit when he gets excited - ala a fist pound replaces the high five. The worst is the aptly named "penis punch" which is so wrong on so many levels. He hits to protect his mommy from the hateful words from Keegan, when he's losing at a game or someone is just not playing how he wants to play. When he's tired or upset his default is hitting, and there is very little tougher for me than disciplining a tired and cranky child - it just seems to escalate the behaviour. I thought sitting with him in timeout would help to calm him down, which it did, but it made him scream for me the next few times he was in timeout.

So my latest solution, Daddy's in charge of enforcing the rules

Check out other posts at the New Jersey Moms Virtual Book Club today

SPAM through the Google Reader, so dissapointed

Even with family members, I must confess, I'm better with email than phone, but my sister and brother are like so 90s. After convincing my brother that they now actually have software and filtery type thingies that would reduce your email spam, I noticed these popping up in my Google Reader. I admit I removed all the legit blogs to make this a bit more dramatic, but still WTF?? Didn't spend too longer over there, but search for spam turned up nada. I think there is some authentication I need, but that'll have to wait till another day.

Blog Pusher

I was just thinking the other day how ironic it is that I, of all the people in my family, has a blog. My dad wrote this in an email to someone recently..

"Nicole is a blogger, which is more than I can say for me, and she often tells me now folks actually make a living doing it. I guess if you write something that lots of people want to read, you can sell advertising space."

Because, really, all my Dad does is run his own non-profit, participate in most boards in EPA, rattle off the occasional editorial and win grandpa of the year award every single year (okay, he's the only grandpa in our family, and I might be a tad biased about that last one.) But that's not the point of this post. The point is my family is full of opinionated, smart and funny people who really enjoy writing, and I'm the one with a blog. I told my college interviewer that I wanted to go to MIT because I hated writing. I did learn to like it, but not really enough to dream about doing it as a profession.

My brother on the other hand, used to write short stories and dream of being published. My husband used to write poetry every Friday night at a neighborhood coffee shop. And my sister is a lawyer, chock full of opinions. And yet, who blogs? The person who refuses to read or listen to bad news and is the ultimate team player at work, rarely voicing a dissenting opinion these days.

Ever since I learned about this blogging thing, I've been pushing it on people I think would be excellent bloggers. The funny, brilliant mom who fantasizes about her fourth child starting kindergarten so she can go back to work, and who took care of three kids and supported her husband when he was trying his hand at stared a company. She's got stories about kids being dropped off at her house for 7 hours, but then friends afraid to have her family over because "their child has trouble sharing," and that doesn't even touch on her political rants. She is not one to stay quiet.

Then there is my brother and husband. They are both starting small business and are experts in their field. Both their businesses (soccer coach and teaching supply store) have a pretty narrow focus but a wide audience. And with their funny stories and advice, not to mention their need to supplement their income, I think they'd produce a great blog.

What mom or teacher doesn't want to hear about the best math workbook for 3rd grade or a useful present for a 1st grade teacher? What parent doesn't want to know about fun travel games for that pending road trip, or advice about starting a business designed to allow you lots of time with your kids? As for my husband he's got training in learning styles, how long kids can play without water breaks and what drills are designed to make soccer fun for a kid. He can tell you what to look for in a coach or soccer club, and share secrets of Brazil's success. And he can gripe about a stupid announcer or bad trade like nobody's business.

I don't know if it's the blogger in me, the business woman trying to help them capitalize on their talents in this Web 2.0 world, or I just feel like if I can't write a compelling blog post, I can take credit for getting other bogs started. But I'm not going to back off until I see them start churning out the posts.

Thanksgiving Redux

Okay, I wanted to post my thanksgiving menu too, which was written up by me and decorated by my son. My personal contribution was to decorate the main table (I was planning to credit the kids if it looked too goofy) and add the pecans to the pie. Okay, I also schlepped food too and from the shop outside, braving the 40 degree Utah weather, turned the slippery turkey over and chopped up the turkey neck and giblets.

We had a really pleasant thanksgiving. There were four generations with family members who've had a somewhat rocky past, so it was really wonderful to see everyone enjoying themselves and the good food. And the new little pool cues we bought the day before, as well as the rousing game of steal the baseball cap, kept the kids occupied.

Appetizers

Cream-cheese with cranberry-pepper jelly with crackers

Mini beef wellingtons.

The Main Spread

Roast turkey

Gravy

Stuffing

Mashed potatoes

Sweet potato casserole with streusal topping

Cranberry Relish

Cranberry Sauce with Apples

Ratatouille

Butter rolls and Orange rolls (with orange frosting)

And for Dessert

Mystery pecan pie (cream cheese is the mystery, and it's amazing)

Pumpkin pie

Cream cheese brownies

I'm really thankful the kids are getting to know their cousins far and wide. No snow, but oodles of fun with grandma this week. And that I got to watch D savor 3 of those rolls. Other than that I think they only at "fuzzing" and of course a little dessert.

Here's how I occupied them while we were all getting ready. I had no idea K was so symmetrical. I had grabbed a couple stacks of photos so they could choose, and K chose one of his little brother. These are gifts for grandma's birthday on Sunday.