Family Cooking Means Family Bonding As a child growing up, my family didn't eat out much. Instead, my mom made the meals from scratch. It's one of those things that one doesn't appreciate as much as a child but have become fond memories as I look back on them. I guess as a child, I took things for granted. I specifically remember the hours she would spend making noodles by hand. Rolling the dough thin, allowing it to harden some overnight, cutting them and making her famous homemade chicken noodle soup. The best thing about it all was she made lots. Our bowls would be bottomless and we could always enjoy it for a couple of days. As I got older, my sister and I joined 4-H. We took many cooking projects and our mom was there every step of the way. Making homemade bread and cinnamon rolls became my favorite when I was in high school. I liked creating things that were more of a challange. Bread would take much time involvement. You had to nurture the dough until it was ready to cook. My mom would share stories of the first time she made bread. Needless to say, it was not edible. The bread dough was most likely overworked and kneaded. It didn't raise. Ever hear the phrase "you could use it as a doorstop"? Well, my grandma did just that for a couple years. My mom didn't let us make the same mistake. My mom is gone now. I cherish those memories and now am creating my own traditions. Now a mother myself, I am trying to involve my daughter in our own special cooking projects. Of course I do the same when making homemade soup as well as the rest of the regular meals too, but our extra projects are more fun. She is two and a half and enjoys this time together. During our typical dinner preparation she wants to be involved in every step. If we are boiling water, she has to see the bubbles. If we are using the oven, the light has to be on so she can watch our creations as they blossom. Making eggs? She gets to help crack them. (In a separate bowl of course, I don't let her touch the hot pans nor get too close to greasy items cooking) Safety is important. Today I promised her that we would make some homemade cookies together. She is already getting excited about that. Now you may ask how a two year old can make cookies, but you'd be surprised. I get out all of our ingredients. If I say we need flour, I ask her which one is the flour and she shows me. I measure it out and let her put it in the bowl. "Which one is the sugar?" She says, "This one!" and we measure the sugar and she pours it in the bowl. I let her crack the eggs. I remember the first time I tried to get her to crack the eggs and she threw the eggs in whole. I thought it was cute. Once all the ingredients are in the bowl, I mix up the dough and will create the balls to put on the cookie sheet. I give her the balls of dough, and she places them one at a time on the cookie sheet and then I put the pan in the oven. She watches them cook and says, "It's cooking!" or "All Right!!" Hopefully one day she will find herself looking back on these special times and cherish them as much as I. Dora the Explorer is a Child's Dream The cookies are done, and I have been enjoying my weekend off. My younger sister brought over some items for my daughter she had picked up. Dora the Explorer. What more could my daughter ask for. What is it about this remarkable cartoon that little girls everywhere cherish? What did she get today? Dora the Explorer shoes and also a sundress. Both of which she had to put on right away. Not two seconds after she saw the shoes, my daughter tried to hand the ones she was wearing to my sister. "Here you go." she said. It was obvious she was implying, who needs any other shoes when you have Dora the Explorer? Of course these are only a few of the Dora items my daughter owns. This is the third pair of Dora shoes she now owns. She also has a Dora shirt, Dora pajamas, 3 Dora puzzles, a Dora ball, a Dora lunchbox, Dora tray table, Dora plate and bowl, two Dora cups, a Dora purse, a Dora tote bag, Dora power wheels and more. Needless to say, this two year old loves Dora the Explorer. What's next? Probably Dora furniture for her room. I havn't been able to get her to sleep in her bed since I converted it from the crib. Ebay sells Dora furniture sets with a bed, storage rack, and table and chairs. I have been promising her this when she is fully potty trained. Believe me, she's excited. Sudoku is Addictive How did I get started with Sudoku? Well, my twin sister was kind enough to give me two books for Christmas. Both of which sat on a self in the corner for a few weeks until I picked one up to see what all the talk was about. Having never explored the game much, I was a bit unsure of the concept. But wait, it's all a matter of fill in the blank. It makes you think. One big puzzle of numbers fitting together like some strange form of crossword. I found myself glued to the book. I'd play when I got home from work, during commercial breaks, last thing I'd do before I went to bed and the first thing I'd do when I'd wake up. Well, needless to say I completed both of those books within a couple of weeks. That is more than 200 puzzles. What did I do then? Went out and purchased a couple more Sudoku books of course. The problem isn't too bad if one can refrain from starting the book, they'll be just fine. But crack open that first page and get the puzzle going and I'm hooked. You see, the book has easy puzzles in the beginning and then they gradually get more complex. So an easy puzzle I can complete in a matter of a couple minutes. And I'm hooked. Well I had lucked out. I put the last book away abou 20 puzzles in. I stuck it in the bottom of a box of bills stubs, magazines and more. I moved on with my life. This last spring I redid all of the flower beds around the house. Two were rock beds I turned back into flower beds. I built up the soil around the foundation of the house to allow for better drainage. I assembled a swing set for my two year old. I cut branches. I pulled weeds. I cleaned house. Life was good. Needless to say, I came across that book a few days ago. It is now about completed. I am down to the last three of four puzzles. Of course, these are the more challenging ones. Hopefully, I can get them completed in the next couple of days around my work schedule. Then onto living life again. Rubber Duckie Bathtub Fun My daughter just woke up and what does she want to do? "Bath, bath," she says. I put the plug in the tub and start to run the water. She likes it when I squeeze a little bubble bath or shampoo in the tub. "Bubbles!" Now how many ducks does it take to get clean? Well she has 21 toys in there, all different shapes and sizes. There are two frogs that ribbit and light up, one big duck she calls mama duck. There are also three small ducks she calls baby ducks. A small duck with her name on it. A variety of colors and sizes of ducks that light up. Some of the ducks don't light anymore. She says, "battery dead" "it's broke". There is also a turtle that paddles. I duck that swims. A rubber fountain duck that quacks and lights up, and a fish that she uses like a squirtgun. Yes, bathtime can be so much fun. Cat Run Means More Than Just Safety The proud owner of three siamese cats, you can imagine my two year old's excitement when I told her that our mama kitties were pregnant and would be having kittens. Of course, the kittens bring joy, but they can also bring a certain amount of chaos to our lives. I'm not talking about the increase of food and water consumption. Although, they now get fed about 6 times a day instead of only 2. But, between the two mama cats, we now have 12 cats in our lives instead of 3. Hense the need for the word chaos. I came upon a solution. Some people create an outdoor, backyard, or patio cat run to keep their cats safe. I took this concept one step further. An indoor one. During the day the cats and kittens have full run of the house. At night they go in the run so we can rest without 12 cats playing squirrel chase around the house disturbing our beauty rest. But amazingly, they don't mind the run. I got some ideas for this from diybum.com. Ultimately I made my own design. We have a corner in our basement that has linoleum vs carpeting and I utilized this space. Now, this is no tiny cage. Let me say it's plenty big for myself, my daughter, and my husband to sit in and play with the cats and kittens. Overall, the run is 8 feet long, four feet tall, and about 6 feet wide. We have our own large access door. Two jingle balls hang from the ceiling from leather lace. The litter box is enclosed in its own custom designed litterbox cabinet. The litterbox cabinet was a feat of its own. I figured with 12 cats utilizing one box, we'd need a way to accomodate the smell despite frequent scooping and litter changes. To start with, I made a wooden frame with two attached sides (opposite walls) and attached the top. I then made a full-size door. This door went to the outer edge of the run. This allows a separate access to be able to change the litter without going inside the run to try and carry it out. It makes it much easier to clean. The other added perk? Once the box is pulled out, vacuum the inside of the cabinet for any litter spillage and the run stays clean. The entrance of the run is sealed with carpet and the rest of the outer side of the cabinet is carpeted also. This allows for the siamese cats and kittens to have their own scratch post as well as prevents litter from being kicked out of the cabinet. There is a small hole cut into the carpet to allow the cats access to the litterbox. Now the top of the cabinet has another added feature. I added a custom hole in which a dryer hose was adapted. The hose stretches up towards the ceiling and is mounted directly to the ceiling vent. The outer vent grates on the cover were plugged with duct tape and a hole was cut into the center of the cover to mount the hose. Neat thing is, no litter smell at all! It's actually quite amazing. The inside of the run was then carpeted. And then it came time to enclose the unit. For the areas along the walls, I used a lightweight deer mesh. I used two layers to increase stability, but as no room for cats to get out, I did not need something as stable. I used this netting at the top too, again two layers thick. Along the outer walls, I used a heavy duty plastic hardware cloth. Originally I would have used chicken wire or another type of metal fencing, but I did not think that this would be a safe option for a two year old to be playing with constantly. After a week of construction in my free time, the run was complete. The cats love it, we love our sanity, and our daugter loves to hang out in there and play with the kittens. It's definately worth the effort. And soon our kittens will be available for sale. Best thing is, all the kittens are litter trained almost instantly. They get to see mom and dad use the box first hand, no questions asked, they just go on their own. I wish potty training a two year old was as easy a feat. Soaring Gas Prices vs Electric Motorcycle Car I saw an interesting article in the local paper a few days ago. A local woman purchased a small green electric car. It was actually quite cute in appearance. Well, according to Nebraska law, her vehicle is not a car. In all senses, it looks like a car except it only has 3 wheels. This simple fact meant the she had to have it registered as a 3 wheeled motorcycle. What did she purchase? A Xebra (pronounced zebra) This car meets everything that she needs in a vehicle. They are great for around town driving. It requires no fuel. It operates solely on batteries. With a top speed of 40 mph and a range of around 50 miles. One could do all their driving in a day and then plug it in at night. The batteries charge in 6-8 hours. One downside, the woman has to wear a helmet everywhere she drives. Nebraska state law requires all motorcycle drivers to wear helmets. Since her car is not legally a car, she must abide by this law. She has petitioned to get this changed so the body of her "car" would count as a helmet, but so far, no such luck. This also means that any other passengers in her car must wear helmets also. Could you imagine having to carry helmets in the car for guests. What about for a small child in a car seat? Not having to fuel the car would be nice, but I am unsure if I'd be willing to take on the other inconveniences. The helmets would be cumbersome to carry around. Getting a two year old to faithfully wear her helmet and not cry would be a challenge. Also, being that this car is the first of its kind in the immediate area, I can imagine trying to get it repaired would be rather costly. The price of this car was quite reasonable. According to the article, she found this all electric vehicle for around $12,000. Not bad at all. That is about the price of a brand new Kia Spectra. Now, if you could find another all-electric vehicle for about the same price range with a better range, top speed, and four wheels, you'd be set. We may just then see more of these electric wonders on the road and a few less gas stations on every corner. Local Invitation Provides Hope for Better Internet Profits My husband and I began our quest to become profitable online approximately 9 months ago. Let me just say, this has not been an easy task. After reading multiple stories of folks making thousands of dollars each day, we became inspired. Now by no means are we perfect, nor are we anywhere close to making thousands of dollars a day, but we are definately doing a little better each day, week by week, month by month. We received our first commission in March, four months after we began. Since then, our commisions have continued to increase. Our website traffic is also gradually increasing. Trust me, we have made our share of mistakes, and we continue to learn from them. We eagarly listen to advice and read suggestions other have. And now our chance for more knowledge. We received an invitation in the mail for a free conference we can attend at the local Holiday Inn to help us learn how to make money on the internet using Ebay, Yahoo, Google, and MSN. Hopefully what we can gain out of the seminar will help us to push ourselves further forward. The more we learn, the more we are willing to help others help learn also. In May I was able to quit my second job. I still work full-time. Maybe in another year or two I can cut my hours back more. I would love to be able to be independantly wealthy, stay and home with my daughter more, and enjoy life to it's fullest. Treating Knee Pain with Electronic Acupuncture After putting up with left knee pain for some time, I finally decided to go to a chiropractor to see if I could get some relief. My knee has been hurting now for roughly six months. It started with no cause for injury; nothing more than wearing a cheap pair of new shoes. My knee began to hurt, but not too bad at the time. I noticed discomfort the most when I went to stand after sitting. I would experience pain on the outer side and rear of my knee. My doctor diagnosed it with IBS. No, not irritable bowel syndrome. He diagnosed it with iliotibial band syndrome. It's often called runner's knee. It's usually treated with anti-inflamatories, frequent icing, and a variety of stretching exercises. These exercises include squats with a ball between knees and back against the wall, lying on your good side and doing leg lifts, standing with your legs crossed, good leg in front and bending over to touch your toes, next, standing on your affected leg with same side hand on the wall. Lift good leg forward, back, to side and across affected leg several reps each to stabilize knee. Another stretch is to lie on back with affected leg vertical against wall and good leg extended through doorway, and also to grab ankle and pull heel towards buttocks. Each of these are intended to stretch the tendons. My doctor was optimistic that this treatment would help. And, for awhile it did. He had put me on Celebrex. And, as long as I was on it, the symptoms improved. For a short time, I was pain free. Then of course I was weaned off of the Celebrex and the pain returned within a few days. And it gradually increased in intensity. I called my doctor and started the Celebrex again. Not long after I stumbled at home and sprained my right foot. Not being able to walk well or put much weight on that foot, my bad knee took a lot of abuse for a couple weeks. Needless to say, my knee pain more then quadrupled despite the Celebrex. Well, I did find out that another cause of IBS is if one leg happens to be shorter than the other. I decided to try the chiropractor to see what I could find out. Well, my suspicions were correct. My right leg was shorter than the left due to my right hip being out of alignment. I went in for my adjustment and found that this clinic also utilizes electronic acupunture. I had never heard of it before. Anytime I had heard mention of acupuncture, I always thought of all of the needles. So I asked her, "what's the difference between electronic and traditional acupuncture?" She told me that the answer was simple. With traditional acupuncture, there are limits. The body stands risk for infection. One has to be careful of bodily fluids. Some people have lowered immune systems or are on blood thinners and this can be risky. Also needles would need to be inserted into the tissue for 15 to 45 minutes each. Plus, some people are phobic of needles. Electronic acupuncture is safe. There are over 500 points on the body to help with a multitude of symptoms. What does it feel like? Like nothing more than a wet cotton swab touching the skin. The probes utilize a moistened Q-Tip end and stimulates the pressure points. Each area can be treated in a matter of a couple seconds instead of 15 to 45 minutes. This allows the Doctor to treat people in a quick fashion with no side effects. The acupuncture is safe for anyone from a newborn baby to the elderly. Since my knee has been hurting, she gently adjusts my knee and hip, then treats the area locally with the electronic acupuncture. She then treats my ear which has points for joint and extremity pain, and also inbetween my thumb and forefinger on each hand. She told me that these were master points that can help with pain anywhere in the body and actually can help with a multitude of other symptoms. My knee is still quite painful, but I can say that the throbbing intensity has dulled. My knee is still inflamed and tender, but I am optimistic that I am on the road to recovery. Mommy and Daughter Day Today was my day off from work. Yeah! My daughter and i got up bright and early. We had several errands to run today. She loves this as she goes with me everywhere. To the bank, the store, etc. My mother in law's cell phone had a cracked hinge so we stopped by her work and picked up her phone so we could get her a new one. When it was time to go, my daughter said, " Bye momma!" I told her that she was leaving too and to tell Grandma goodbye. Once the errands were ran, we had our daily cookoff. Today we made homemade snickerdoodle cookies and also chocolate covered Cheerio bars. Yum! Her favorite part is watching the cookies through the oven window as they bake. The cheerio bars are easy to make and oh so delicious! They are rich, but yet hard to stop at just one. You find yourself wanting to go back for more and more. I am including the recipe below: Mama's Chocolate Covered Cheerio Bars You will need: Idiots Under The Influence The end to the perfect day, or so I thought. My husband had a friend come over this evening so I thought it would be nice if we went and got some pizza for us all. Little Ceasars is just down the street from us. My daughter and I took the jaunt down there in our family car. There were two vehicles with an empty parking space inbetween. I saw the drivers door close on the suv on the right and then I pulled into the space. I parked, turned the car off and had just pulled the keys out of the ignition when WHAM! The whole car shook and was jolted sideways. What exactly promted the guy to the right of me to crank his wheel all the way to the right as he backed out does not quite make sense to me. Perhaps it was the alcohol one could smell on his breath from over 5 feet away. My daughter was screaming. I unfastened my seat belt and jumped out of the car quickly to make sure that I got a plate number if the vehicle decided to flee. There was a female in the passenger side who said loudly, "You'd better say you're sorry!" Needless to say, the guy said he was sorry about 20 times. The fact that my two year old was in the car crying made him feel worse. He said, "right after, I saw the car seat I instantly thought, "Oh my God!". I tried to comfort my daughter, but also get what information I could as quickly as possible. I know that getting the police involved on accidents that occur in parking lots is hard to come by. I asked if he had a driver's license so I could get his number if needed and was told that he did not have it with him. He provided me with the insurance information. A 1999 Chevy Tahoe insured by Geico. The whole passenger side of my vehicle is scraped and dented in. I wrote down the details for us both. And then went on inside to get the pizza we had gone for originally. I asked the people inside Little Ceasar's if they had seen the incident, but they hadn't. So, while I waited for the pizza, I called the 1-800 Progressive accident claim number on my car insurance stub. Hopefully we can get this fixed and taken care of soon. |
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