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When Mama’s Not Feelin’ Well…

Friday, August 27th, 2010

…Home Economics class kicks into high gear with my 15 year-old’s assignments: “You’re on your own for lunch.” He took me seriously and made himself 3 veggie melts on toast – those things I’ve shared on the blog before; toasted wholegrain bread, open-faced and layered with a spread of mayo, mustard, sliced avocado, tomato, onion and cheese, then melted under the broiler. (see below)

Then I announced that he would be making ‘his pasta dish’ for the family later that evening. He bristled a bit but pulled it off with flare. I lightened his academic load to balance the day for him so he wouldn’t be too daunted by it all…but I noticed he had plenty of time for social networking, so he must have been pretty chill.

By the looks of things, I’d say he earned an ‘A’.

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Christmas FOOD! Oh, yeah…

Thursday, December 24th, 2009

Popper is in the kitchen with Mommer, cooking up our traditional Italian feast for the fam! We were chatting about the holiday fare and deciding if Italian would be on the menu. I said “if the boys arrive and there’s no garlic in the air, their jaws will drop to their knees and Christmas just won’t be the same.” LOUD LAUGHTER! Here’s my man making the meatballs…

Frying up those spicy Italian sausages…My messy corner where the ‘please-Lord-let-it-be-perfect’ sauce begins!

Gently simmering now with the meatballs and sausage…mmmm! Visions of bolognese dancing in our heads!

Never fear – I have my hairnet on as you can see below and I lint-brushed hubby and I before food preparation so no ‘fly-aways’ in Mama Mira’s sauce…

Yes, it’s true, I do possess some obsessive eccentricities But you can feel good about eating when the cook promises never to lick her fingers or double dip a tasting spoon, right?! (No cat hair either, I promise!)

Posted in Life in the Fishbowl: ministry wives, Mama's in the kitchen - No Ordinary Food!, Mom's Home: domesticity, Parenting | No Comments »

A Christmas Solo Piano Concert Date.

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

I had the pleasure of attending a Scott D. Davis solo piano concert this week with my two sons. They are passionate musicians and have admired Scott’s abilities on the piano from a distance. What a treat to find he was playing here in our little city! We arrived very early to get a good seat – REALLY EARLY as you can see from the empty room….ha! Never fear, Mom’s cell phone is close at hand for entertaining bored children…

Here you can see Scott attacking the keys with a fervor! After entertaining us for almost 2 hours with a diverse menu of tunes and entertaining dialogue, he took time to visit with my sons. They connected about music, speaking a language I don’t know very well! I just love how God kisses our kids’ lives with special treats like this.

Merry Christmas to my boys from the Lord Jesus!

Posted in No Ordinary Child, Parenting | No Comments »

OVERWHELMED.

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

Yep. I was feelin’ it. Life is flying about me like clothes in a tumble dryer and my to-do lists are growing longer and stretching across pieces of odd-shaped papers grabbed from here, pulled from there. Stress was pounding in my chest so I had to TAKE CHARGE!

I began to list neatly on ONE page every single thing I needed to get done this week from making a grocery list based on the meal list still needing to be completed, to deciding which sheets will go on which bed for our house guests, to cleaning the ceiling fans, toilets and sweeping the front porch. Then, I organized it into four lists: 1-meal list, 2-grocery list, 3-cleaning list, 4-errands to run.

Then, I sent my two teen-agers, shopping lists in hand…

to do ALL the holiday food shopping at two different stores, God bless ‘em!

They came home 3 hours and a few phone calls later (Momma they don’t have sweet-hot mustard…Momma they don’t have summer sausage…), exhausted (welcome to my world, boys!) and victorious. I was so proud of them. One of them had called me in a panic to make sure there was enough money in his bank account to get through the check-out line without embarrassment (been there, done that before!).

Mission accomplished!

Tomorrow they attack the cleaning list! Thank God for teen-agers!

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Stop this train…

Friday, December 18th, 2009

With just 6 more sleeps ’til Christmas Eve (yippee!), I’m sure you’re engaged in all the pre-Christmas activities that need doing – just like me. I’m not a completely-consumed-with-materialistic ‘Christmas-musts’ shopping monster, but I am a MOM and I love surprises and yummy food and clean sheets and a cozy home, ready for the fam. And…I tend not to stop to relax as much as I probably should because I love to busy myself with being productive . Can you relate?!?!

I popped into an Ace hardware store the other day. “Ace is the place with the helpful hardware man,” if you haven’t seen the ad and perhaps it’s not in your region or country, but I’m sure you have a place like this. It’s not a big-box, impersonal sort-of place, but more of an old-fashioned stop where you’ll always find a large number of grey-haired shoppers. I think they like Ace because it’s a little bit of yesterday with up-to-the-date handyman stuff along with hands-on help and a little bit of everything else.

You know you’re a real grown-up girl when you get excited just to take 5 long and uninterrupted minutes to browse their unbelievable cleaning supply aisle. (sick, I know!) Like ‘gourmet treats’ for Mrs. Clean. Every odd- and-end hard-to-find cleaning item and tool all the other stores often don’t carry. I know you know what I’m talkin’ about.

Then! This jaw-dropping scene stopped me dead in my tracks. It was almost a holy moment as I stared, pondering the fantasy wonderland before my eyes, conjuring up memories of simpler times in years gone by.

I even turned to an older gentlemen with a handle-bar mustache standing next to me, apparently sensing the same enchanted aura about us…“Don’tcha just love these?!” I asked excitedly.

“Oh, yeah!” He replied.

We stood there silently, just looking.

I was thinking how, back in the day, my five little boys would have gone nuts watching that gigantic, festive, mini-train-city scene.

Time marches on like a locomotive, garnering speed and momentum as we grow older. Drink in these moments with your little ones.

Reminds me of one of my favorite songs by John Mayer. I always cry when I hear him sing this:

“Stop this train
I want to get off and go home again
I can’t take the speed it’s moving in
I know I can’t but honestly won’t someone stop this train

So scared of getting older
I’m only good at being young
So I play the numbers game to find a way to say that life has just begun
Had a talk with my old man
Said help me understand
He said turn 68, you’ll renegotiate
Don’t stop this train
Don’t for a minute change the place you’re in
Don’t think I couldn’t ever understand
I tried my hand
John, honestly we’ll never stop this train

Stop this train
I want to get off and go home again
I can’t take the speed it’s moving in
I know I can’t but honestly won’t someone stop this train.”

Posted in No Ordinary Child, Parenting | No Comments »

This is a movie worth seeing.

Sunday, December 13th, 2009

So I’d read all about The Blind Side in, yes, WORLD magazine. But to be honest, I wasn’t convinced.

I’ve got five sons and the youngest two are 14 and 17. They’ve probably seen enough ‘Hallmark movies’ and saccharin-sweet-sentimental flicks in their young lives to immunize them against ever seeing another. (Until they have little ones of their own of course!)

And to be quite honest, I wasn’t feelin’ it for another one of those, either. I have so appreciated finding those little gems along the way as we’ve been raising our sons. Squeaky-clean feel-good movies that stress character, biblical values and good guys who win. But, how many happy-ending-sports films can one take? As in, how much chocolate can a person eat?! And I love chocolate. Perhaps I sound cynical, but I think it’s just that I’m sort of bored with that genre’. Just tellin’ it like it is. I did not run to the theatre on opening day. blindside I figured we could rent it when it came out. I was torn because I wanted to be supportive of folks wanting to do a good thing, but after all, theatre tickets are pricey so we’re selective about what we see out as a family. We were kind of wanting to see a festive, holiday film.

THEN…I happened to read a review by some columnist on CNN online and his experience of seeing The Blind Side. Hmm. Surprising. The same day hubby saw that it hit #1 at the box office. That got our attention and convinced us to go. We grabbed some dinner (with coupons) with our boys and hit the matinee to save some more money.

It’s difficult to sum up. Not boring. Not entirely predictable. Not sugar sweet. Peppery and exciting. Very well cast. Great fodder for family conversation. Yes, tear-jerker for hubby and I. I wanna go again!

That crazy movie was heavily on my mind for days after we saw it. It moved me. I journaled about it. It angered me, blessed me, cheered me and made me cry. That’s not bad for $7.75.

tix

Posted in Parenting | 4 Comments »

Speaking of diet..

Monday, December 7th, 2009

Could her digestive problems have anything to do with the large piece of greasy, white-flour crusted, cheese-laden pizza she is consuming?! When we spotted this on the shelf at the pharmacy, hubby and I thought it was too funny to pass up …

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Gotta keep movin’…

Sunday, December 6th, 2009

My folks raised our family with the value of staying healthy. I wouldn’t call them extreme health nuts, but when I lived at home, you’d rarely find a soda in the house or candy on the counter. We drank water. We basically had 3 T.V. stations and an Atari, which wasn’t a real big draw day and night like some of the games these days. We ate lots and lots of fruits and veggies and exercise was a way of life. We rarely ate out – it was a huge treat. I appreciate those habits being ingrained in me. I’ve not only passed down the same to my kids, but tried to take it up a notch to pursue greater health, although I think it’s even a bigger challenge now with relatively cheap, tasty, unhealthy fast food available at every corner, our sweet tempting coffee/drink culture and far more sedentary electronic amusements to choose from. I have to intentionally seek to stay fit because in actual fact, it’s easier not to!

I don’t ‘diet’ per se because diets are bondage for me. I’ve been on so many of them for so many years that I’ve completely lost the patience for them. If I want egg nog, I’m gonna have egg nog, rather than eating 2 oranges, a pile of celery, 30 almonds, a piece of diet toast and then at midnight finally succumbing to a quart of egg nog! Ha! That was my life. Eat everything you can from the ‘yes’ list and think about the ‘no’ list all day…finally indulging in too many ‘no’s’ in a weak moment.

With the holidays upon us, cooler temps persisting – I’m making an effort to keep movin’. That’s what my dad taught me. We jogged/walked and bowled in the winter and played tennis, biked and swam in the summer. It was a natural seasonal progression. I find myself doing pretty much the same as an adult, but now in a warmer climate I get to mix up the summer stuff into winter which is a real blessing!

I was riding my bike in the park nearby this week.

Suddenly I spotted a pack of wild turkeys crossing the road…

I mischievously began to follow them…They began to run frantically – I was laughing out loud while I tried to steer my bike and shoot photos…I was having so much fun and then I realized another biker was behind me, watching the whole scene. I pedaled faster and took a sharp left to escape!

All the colors of fall are so beautiful, aren’t they?! I’m a little sad to see all the leaves disappearing. Seasons change so quickly…

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Thanksgiving Day Prep…

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

We’re hosting a Thanksgiving feast here on the home front tomorrow, so there are lots of duties to be done – especially since we’re once again in remodel mode, plus hubby has been seriously motivated to ‘Deck the Halls’ this year with all our kids coming for Christmas Our second-born arrives tomorrow and I can hardly wait! Daddy really wanted the house to be welcoming. YIPPEE!!!! WAHOO!!! EUREKA!!! Absolute chaos. I’ve hardly had space to walk through the house, let alone clean and organize it. God bless MY MESS!

Gregory, my husband of nearly 29 years (on the 29th!) is cutting my prep time in half this year just by chopping stuff. What a major help!!! He made it through the celery without a hitch, but the onions got him! I said, “welcome to my world!” but actually I cheat because I wear contact lenses and I’ve discovered that chopping onions has no effect on me whatsoever and apparently my contacts are the key. Well, he was overcome with the fumes and went out to the garage?!…

I was engrossed in my own tasks, when suddenly I looked at him and saw the swim goggles. OMGosh. He learned that tip from our two boys who often serve as my sous chefs – what a scream! Isn’t he just so handsome…he still takes my breath away.

I’ve been warning my youngest, “Seth, Wednesday is a WORK DAY so be ready to roll – we’ve got a lot to accomplish.” So after Bible and his Wednesday dog walk for the widow down the block, he began his first task…the dreaded laundry!

His big brother Levi is in school full time now, preparing for a career, so he was busy in the kitchen last night making his lunch for the ‘morrow. He prepares some pretty creative wraps that WOW his fellow students. Chicken, fresh basil, tomatoes, Italian salami, cheese, ranch dressing, sprouts, sweet red peppers, whole wheat Lavosh wrap bread…all sorts of healthy, good stuff. Some days he gets lazy and it’s just PBJ on a bun…

Everyone chipped in tonight to clear the clutter and clean the kitchen – Levi is doing dishes while Seth is preparing a family tradition – ambrosia salad. One of those things the Miras have to see on the buffet or it’s just not Thanksgiving! You can find a lot of recipes for this online. They call it 5 cup salad. It’s easy and absolutely delicious. Here’s how you make it:
Ambrosia
1 cup sour cream
1 cup sweetened grated coconut
1 cup mini-marshmallows
1 cup very well drained mandarin oranges (we throw the juice out – just sugar water)
1 cup very well drained pineapple chunks or tidbits (we save the juice to drink)
Mix the first three ingredients together well in a bowl.
Fold in the fruit.
Chill overnight.
YUM. Great frivolous side dish, almost a dessert.
(We multiply it by 5 or 6 to make a big batch)

HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Posted in Mama's in the kitchen - No Ordinary Food!, Mom's Home: domesticity, No Ordinary Child, Parenting | 1 Comment »

Just one decision…

Friday, November 6th, 2009

The following is a true, very short story. I’ve been wanting to share it with you, and I thought this might be a fun way to begin the weekend…

THE BREAKFAST

Every morning, Mike Jaffee caught a train into work while his daughter was sleeping. Every night, he didn’t return until she was back in bed.

“One Monday, I was sitting outside at lunch. I realized this is not the kind of dad I want to be. This is not the kind of husband I want to be.”

He decided to start with one small step – eating breakfast with his family. breakkie

The next day, that small step changed his life more drastically than he could have imagined.

Jaffee doesn’t remember what he ate for breakfast on September 11, 2001. But it meant taking a later train to his job at the World Trade Center. The first plane hit at 8:46 a.m. Had he caught his usual train, Jaffee would have been at his desk on the 96th floor and likely would have been among the nearly 300 Marsh & McLennan employees killed.

In the subsequent months, Jaffee realized his job wasn’t right for him anymore. About 18 months later, he began to prepare himself for a new vocation, which he now enjoys.

His advice to others: “Ask yourself what is your ideal life. And then take that one step.”

BE INSPIRED TO MAKE A CHANGE…think big, but start small. WHO KNOWS?

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