When Pregnancy Brain Attacks...

from: pregnancy-brain.jpg

So. I'm pregnant. 

You know how you hear stories about women losing their minds when they're pregnant?  And not ONLY in cranky-pants hormone fits (ummm....see my last post - totally NOT immune to those!), but we actually get DUMBER. 

As if growing human beings inside our abdominal cavities and all the fun physical repercussions of THAT insanity wasn't enough, the little parasites actually SUCK our brain power. 

(Funny story about that - Little Miss & I have been flipping through some anatomy texts so she can see what the baby looks like inside my tummy and what-not, and today she found a pic showing the baby, other inside bits, and up top, the brain.  She's all....how does the baby get all the way from down there to up to the brain? hahaha Because zombie-baby is LITERALLY sucking my brain... whoops. Parenting fail!)

Anyway. Yes. Brain power. GONE. 

Like, it's GONE. 

Let me illustrate: 

Standing at the checkout of a store with a girlfriend I was trying to pay.  I had cash & coinage to pay with. AND I had enough money.  

So I pulled out my money, in my hand, and held it out....

...waiting for the money to start making sense... 

I finally got the dollar amount together and passed that over, but then was faced with the challenge of counting out a whopping nineteen cents. 

I know, hard, right?  Once those numbers pass ten, it's just....WHOA. 

So I stand there.  With my hand out. Full of change.  And all I need to do is find nineteen cents somewhere amongst that change.  

I wish there had been nineteen pennies.  I think I could have done that.  

After standing there, stupidly, for what felt like an eternity... 

...and not just to me, because FINALLY my gal pal reached over and fished out the change I needed from my palm.  sigh

Another time, slightly more recently, I was preparing myself breakfast.  Now, a lot of the time for breakfast I will make myself a couple of boiled eggs, have some greek yogurt, and an orange.  It's delicious, keeps my tummy calm, and I stay full for at least a couple of hours O:-) 

Well, this one morning, I opened the refrigerator to get out my yogurt, which I buy in large tubs because it's cheaper and less wasteful than buying the individual cups, and then I just dish out a tiny bowl full of what I want to eat that morning.  I know, revolutionary, right?  Anyway, the yogurt had the night before ended up in a little tower of sorts on the top shelf of the fridge, stacked with a tub of sour cream and a jar of seafood sauce. 

So, I reach in to the tower, disassemble it to get at what I need, and retract my arm and hand from the fridge. 

Holding sour cream.  

Duh!  Well, that's understandable. The sour cream is the same size and shaped tub as the yogurt, and they were stacked together. No big deal. Plus, I mean, come on; we all pull that crap sometimes, no?  Your brain is just distracted and you grab the wrong thing?   No big deal. 

So open the fridge door goes again, and into I venture. Going for yogurt. Now this time the acquisition of yogurt requires putting the sour cream BACK into the fridge. Which task I accomplish with amazing accuracy - yay for me!  

I grab what I want, come out of the fridge again, look down at my hand...

...and I'm holding the freaking SEAFOOD SAUCE. 

WHAT THE HECK?! How did I confuse a JAR of SEAFOOD sauce for a tub of cherry greek yogurt?! 

And did I just go into the fridge twice for yogurt and come out with the wrong thing?? TWICE?! 

I'm happy to report that I paid enough attention during the third attempt to emerge from the refrigerator successful, and did eventually get to enjoy my yogurt with my breakfast that morning.  

But. Oh. My. Gosh. 

I'm so stupid on pregnancy my parents keep laughing at me and asking if I'm going to get better.... it's BRUTAL. 

Anyway. We're staying up late to watch Cap'n Jack Sparrow try to reclaim the Black Sparrow from mutinous Barbossa and I'm needed in the kitchen to help make the sweet popcorn.  Pray for my family that I get all the correct ingredients.  I can use all the help I can get at this point!  

To my pregnant friends - I wish nothing but the most resilient brain-power to you ever.  Or, enjoy laughing at these couple of my idiotic placenta-brain moments.  There have been many, and I'm sure a few more to come before the Nugget debuts in a couple of weeks. 

Then...on to NEWBORN BRAIN!  

Bring it on. 

It's a human being.

Well, here we are.  I haven't written on this blog since last June? July? I think it said June when I logged in.... anyway.

2012 was a pretty crappy year in the Red+ household, frankly.  I mean, some awesome things happened, but it was a tough year.  Just lots of....crap.  hahaha And while dealing via writing helps me a lot sometimes, I just couldn't be bothered to take the time.  Spent my me-time kickboxing, reading, and playing with my friends.  

You MAY have heard, probably most people who would bother to read my blog, that in 2012 I FINALLY got pregnant. FIN.AL.LY.  My gosh.  FINALLY when inappropriate, nosy people asked about our procreation plans we had good news.  For those we felt like telling, anyway. O:-) 

I count it amongst my greatest blessings that thus far in my life I have been pregnant twice and had no 'serious' problems or complications. I haven't had the horrible misfortune of miscarrying early on, and while this baby still gestates the computer is bouncing around in my lap with kicks and punches, so with less than a month to go 'til Number Two's debut all appears to be fabulous and healthy with both myself and the fetus.  Which. Is. AWESOME.  

After waiting so long for this baby please know I DO NOT take this for granted.  

Anyway.  

You may have seen (and voted about me blogging! hahaha) on Facebook that I have a bee in my bonnet. I'm sure it won't surprise anyone who knows me at ALL to know the bee is baby-related, and YES, has to do with people who continue to prove my theories about the ever-increasing stupidity of humanity.   

So. Here it goes. 

What is the FIRST thing that someone asks when she finds out you are, or anyone else is, pregnant?

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WHY is that the first thing people ask?!?! WHY?! WHY WHY WHY?! Why does it MATTER?! Seriously?! Does it really MATTER if someone is expecting a girl or a boy? Is our society still so unevolved that you would PREFER for someone ELSE to increase the boy vs. girl or girl vs. boy numbers by contributing offspring to one or the other sex?  Is it BETTER to have a girl or a boy? Is a boy less worthy of celebration or a girl more worth shopping for because you HAVE to dress her in pink and lace?

Can we not just be thrilled that, assuming everything goes okay, the family is expanding at all?

Yes. WE, the PARENTS like to find out. We like to know what our medical professionals think the baby is after the ultrasound. It helps us wrap our heads around the fact that I'm NOT just getting ginormously huge for no reason, and to connect a little bit with the idea of another being showing up in our lives.  But neither Mr. Man or I CARED that Little Miss was expected to be a girl, nor do we CARE about the sex of this baby. Quite frankly, we're both hoping that the ultrasound tech made a mistake and we'll end up with what we're NOT expecting, just to spite all the what-are-you-having-ers. Or a hermaphrodite.  I mean, honestly. It HAPPENS.  It's not so uncommon as NOT to happen.

And while I am ALL for gender roles and girls and boys being different - we ARE different, and I believe VERY strongly that our differences are God-given gifts and/or assignments in life - I DO NOT, nor can I ever imagine myself agreeing with the mindset that forces girls into pink and pearls from BIRTH and boys trucks and sports. WHY just because their genitalia are different should they be denied opportunities to pick favourite colours or toys or activities?  I even saw one "friend" on facebook post that she had to quickly CORRECT her daughter, who preferred playing with her brother's hockey stick than with her barbies. WHAT. THE. CRAP.

Little Miss has been a fabulous introduction for us into raising a daughter. We love her unbelievably. And we're not the only parents to feel this way about our kids - we KNOW we're uber biased, but gosh darn it, I LOVE being her mom.  She is just an absolute delight.

And you know what? She is HER. SHE likes pink, glitter, making jewellery, crafts, colouring, writing "stories" and reading books. She likes Batman, Lego, video games, Mouse Trap, martial arts. She loves princess movies and Barbie movies and Transformers and Power Rangers. She LOVES animals. She wants to be a zookeeper when she grows up.  She loves her stuffies and Little Pet Shops to all be in little families of Mommies & babies - any toy she has one species of is an incomplete set until she can pair it up with a mom or babe.  She loves computers. She loves cooking.  She loves climbing, swinging, sliding. She plays imagination. She wears dresses and skirts and dresses up as Batman for Hallowe'en.  She loves sword fighting. She loves doing manicures and pedicures.

So, yeah. If this baby is another girl, we're kind of stoked about that because our last experience has been amazing. Little Miss is just...HER!  And if this baby is a little boy? I'm super stoked about THAT because it's a new challenge - diapering around extra bits? What? But he will have the same choices and opportunities that Little Miss has had - if he wants to sing and dance and play with dolls, you'd better believe that's what he's going to do.

 Even "knowing" what we're expecting, there's a fairly high chance that these most educated of medical personnel are mistaken and we MIGHT have a baby of the opposite sex.  So no, we don't KNOW what we're having. Except that we assume at this point, with everything pointing to awesome, that we ARE having a baby. A wee teeny tiny bitty human being.

And because we seem to be oddities in our feelings about gender-stereotyping BABIES, we have decided, twice now, that while we know what we're EXPECTING to have, we don't share that information with very many people.  Because, really. WHAT in the heck does it matter? And no, I won't be ONLY using blue or ONLY using pink for whichever my new offspring turns out to be.

So...what set me off specifically today??

Well, we've told SOME people. Not too many. Only people we know who love us and regardless of whether or not they understand our opinions love us enough to smile and laugh and respect our opinions, and keep the information to themselves.

And yet, the gossipmongers are working their magic.  I hate them. I HATE them.

The anticipated gender of my baby is NOT your news. It never has been your news. It never WILL be your news. Any and all information concerning the contents (or more often emptiness) of my uterus is not nor will it EVER be anyone's information except for ME and Mr. Man's. You do NOT get an opinion, nor should you get to know unless expressly told by ME or the FATHER.

Ever notice how I did NOT stand up in church and share my "good news" with you meddlesome lot? Yeah, that was on PURPOSE. Because it's NOT YOUR BUSINESS. You don't get to pick and choose what of my life events you find worthy of celebration with me, and I did NOT ask you to care about this.

I am so infuriated with the gossiping and with the assumption that my life is public just because I now happen to be very noticeably pregnant.  Half of you didn't even find out I was pregnant until after Christmas, and guess what, folks? Baby's due THIS month.

Anyway. I'm HAPPY for you people who like to broadcast your pregnancies and baby's anticipated sex from the tops of buildings. Really, I am.  I have as much say in your doings as you have in mine, so it's not like your "I'm having a boy!" announcements bother me at all. Everyone celebrates and does things differently. I am not RIGHT, this is just how I am.  (Though I do believe I'm right in thinking "correcting" a female from hockey is WRONG WRONG WRONG, but then again, I have a degree in gym class so I'm a little biased towards enjoyable physical activities).  I'm just infuriated with people who so blatantly disregard my wishes and willfully misunderstand and/or ignore everything that Mr. Man and I want in these regards.  Just because you don't comprehend our thinking doesn't mean YOU'RE right, nor does it give you the right to step on our toes or make us feel second-rate or judged.

And I believe it is never ever ever ever ever ever EVER appropriate to spread news about someone that you haven't that person's explicit permission to share, and we definitely have NOT green-lighted ANYONE sharing the sex of the fetus.

And that, dear folks, in a rather large nutshell, is what got me so insanely riled up today.  And why I  DON'T confide in many of you anything about anything because, frankly, you can't keep it to yourselves. You care more about getting and sharing information in your "good intentions" than you actually care about us. And so I will continue to be tight-lipped about my life, my choices, my decisions, my family, my plans, because instead of listening, caring and appreciating, you judge, mock, and gossip. Goodness, if you can't keep the sex of my baby a secret how could I EVER trust you to keep something actually IMPORTANT and "juicy" to yourselves??

(Obviously "you" above doesn't necessarily mean YOU, specifically....it's one of those general yous to the yous who suck the happy out of things. YOU yous. Grrrr to yous!)

Anyway. Apologies for offences, but, hey yous did it first. ;-) hahaha And a bunch of you asked.  Bring on the negative comments - I know I'm a minority in my opinions, but I don't care, and it doesn't make my feelings invalid.  Go ahead and judge and tell me what a horribly cynical miscreant I am.

But just so you know, this miscreant is kind of awesome, and you're very probably missing out because you can't be bothered.  Your problem, not mine.

...I'll try to write again (maybe something less scathing? hahaha) before 2014. Maybe I'll even tell you about the baby when it's here! 'Cause...you know. That IS pretty exciting!

Cheers, all! 

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezie!

(image from: http://www.fittothefinish.com/blog/2011/08/easy-does-it/)

Hey, my last posting was in April! That's not as bad as I thought!

Well, it's been a whirlwind with school winding down, again, finally, and Mr. Man out of work then back to work then out of work... blaaaaah Mostly, for me, though, it's been school. The last while I've been working in the school's massage therapy clinic at first just on Saturdays, and then on Saturdays and Wednesdays, in addition to regularly attending all-day classes (ohmigoodnes, a 7hr lecture followed by an 8hr lecture I KID YOU NOT. Without lunch break. It's been BRUTAL) on Sundays...I haven't had much time to myself, to my housework, to my family... so yeah.

Anyway, I finally had my last day at clinic this week (WAHOOOOO!!!) and have only 3 more Sunday classes left, so minus frantic studying and trying to retain and perfect everything by the time I take my board exams.....BOOyah. (That booyah will be bigger after I'm actually DONE classes...stay tuned...) ;-)

Lately, I've been trying to figure out some stuff about myself that has landed me here, writing on the good old, oft neglected, blog today. You may or may not recall (having maybe or not previously read) me posting earlier in the year about learning MY specific nutritional needs and losing a bunch of weight. Well, I'm fine, I feel fine, I'm not here to wo-is-me-I'm-so-fat today, so don't worry about that! Just lately, I've been struggling. I said in my posting before that I can eat whatever I want, I just, usually DON'T eat certain things anymore i.e. wheat, oats, and spelt. And while my general eating habits haven't changed back to how they were - we as a family do NOT have pasta multiple times/week anymore - I'm also not eating, for me, what I need to be eating.

Part of it is, honestly, I'm just too exhausted all the time. I can't do it if I don't have the full week's meals planned out on my fabulous wipe-clean meal planner I made myself. I LOVE having my meal planner all done and the corresponding groceries in my fridge/storage. But some weeks, with school, clinic, a 4yo, an unemployed hubs and a mountain of dust on the piles of crap around the house, I just don't get it done. And those weeks...we eat whatever the heck we can get our hands on.

 If Mr. Man is in charge of dinner we eat Kraft Dinner, almost exclusively. Which I LOVE, but is definitely not wheat-free (nor a bunch of other crazy stuff we shouldn't be ingesting REGULARLY...cheese isn't really powdered flourescent orange, you know). If we're in a hurry and haven't come up with anything else, we grab a burger somewhere. Or instead of taking thirty seconds to wash myself a piece of lettuce to wrap up my fajita I'll just grab the whole-wheat tortilla. So then when we're out and presented with wheat/oat/spelt options only by some lovely folk kind enough to feed us i.e. parents/friends/family, and I go ahead and have seconds 'cause it's delicious...it's not so much a one-off thing.

Anyway, I haven't put a TON of weight back on - I still fit my skinny clothes. I just have some extra fluff... that whole muffin-top thing. Which is...fluffy.... hahaha Little Miss LOVES to play with it! She was sitting in my lap this morning repeatedly 1-2 punching my gut, squealing as her fists disappeared into my bulge. It was hilarious and delightful...but it's not so pretty in a dress!

 So yesterday, I said to Mr. Man: "I've heard a lot of people suggest and say like, once you buy the veggies actually cut them up and leave them ready-to-use in the fridge, so you CAN easily open it up and grab a fistful of carrot sticks/pepper slices/whatever, instead of landing in the pantry for chocolate chips" (which totally happens in this house, by the way, I do eat fist-fulls of chocolate chips if I can't find anything else 'immediate' to munch on). "AND I'm going to cook up soups and stuff we can keep in small freezer bags in the freezer, so we can just grab them and heat them up for quick lunches/dinners etc." I know, right? BRILLIANT!

So this is my new strategy: I AM super busy, and arguably overworked (my own fault, of course!) so why not make my life EASIER instead of harder and prepare what I want/need to be eating in ways that will make it as super easy and speedy as a box of KD to get from my kitchen's storage into my hungry tummy!?

Yesterday I made kale chips to have on hand for snacks, cauliflower-cheese soup to freeze for quick meals, as well as popping a pork roast I'd gotten on sale at the grocery store in the crock pot with Epicure's Pulled Pork packet (this makes a huge amount that we can then keep in the fridge and slowly make our way through as the week goes on! And it's DELICIOUS, and EASY!) for dinner. Mr Man had his pork on a giant crusty bun, and I did not.

 So that's that! That's the plan. Get back to better at what I was doing before, but make it EASY for me to do. Because while prepping 3 meals a day for my family isn't HARD, it's exhausting, and I'd rather be doing a number of things OUTside of my kitchen. And I can do that now because I have prepped a bunch of meals that will be as easy to get read to eat as popping the can open on Mr. Boyardee, but a bazillion times better for me, AND my little family.

To quote LIttle Miss: "easy peasy lemon squeezie!" :-) My new food mantra!

I wanna be Batman when I grow up.

(image from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/rosenwald-md/post/who-is-the-route-29-batman-this-guy/2012/03/28/gIQA8nPjgS_blog.html)

True statement.

Seriously!

Okay, no, you're right. I don't want to be Bruce Wayne, forever psychotically scarred from childhood trauma, raised by my butler, and with nothing to do with my vast fortunes (though I'll take the vast fortunes!) except pretend I'm a superhero and fighting equally-psychotic villains throughout the rough-and-tumble of Gotham City.

I have already admitted I wouldn't be against being unbelievably wealthy (so sue me. And really, can you REALLY say you wouldn't LOVE to take a book out of Scrooge McDuck's book and BE ABLE to swim in your money-pool? Come on!)  But, aside from my wish to someday own a house...at LEAST a wee little bit larger than the wee little bitty shoe-box of a war-home we currently live in (which I love), ...I REALLY want to be Batman.

Or at least, the so-called "Route 29 Batman."

You have GOT to read this article if you haven't already.  My heart sings for this fantastic man and the fabulously silly and ridiculously important work that he is doing.

It makes me wonder, what CAN I do, what AM I doing, and what WILL I do in the future?  In all honestly, I really hope to be at least a fraction as amazing as this and so many other unsung heroes out there, and to make some sort of change for the better for someone.  Isn't that kind of the whole point?

Yes, I really do want to be Batman.  Well, woman, I guess.

Time to be a little bit selfish...

I know it's Menu Monday today, but I didn't cook anything, really - we had dinner at friends' tonight and lunch was...not spectacular - AND I don't have anything pre-planned to post (whoops), so this week, you'll just have to get over it.  hahaha In fact, if you are so inclined, leave ME one of your favourite recipes to try out in the comments - I'm always looking for new, yummy things to eat!  You know, as long as they're not super weird...

No, today, in lieu of food, let's talk about me.

(image from: http://teachmelife.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/teach-me-not-to-be-selfish/)

You know, the me that you are.  And that I am. And that guy is.  You know. Me.

Here's the thing.

I am a mom. And a wife. And a daughter, sister, student, friend, daughter-and-sister-in-law and auntie.  A role model, teacher, (very small) business owner, housekeeper, pet owner, church-goer, music director and blogger.

But really. How can I expect of myself to do BE any of those things with any degree of success if I'm not, also, ME.  If I'm not someone who looks after herself, loves herself, and works on herself. Because I am NOT perfect, and do need work. 

Lots of it.

Think about it - when are you your best me.  What things do you do that make you just....aaaaaahhhhhh..... FABulous.  Reading a favourite book? Playing video games? Going for a run? A bike ride? Crafting? Cooking? Driving?

I am my best me when I make SURE to take time for me. When I say "SCREW IT!" to my housework, homework, whining family (not that my 4-year-old EVER whines 'cause I'm such an awesome mom she knows NOT to.... hahahahahaha yeah right.... Oh, man, that would be awesome!), and take the evening to go to a kickboxing class. To participate in a musical presentation, and rehearse rehearse rehearse rehearse ahead of time.  You know what? Sometimes, to lay my lazy butt down on the couch and watch some silly chick t.v. (Have you discovered Drop Dead Diva yet? I LOVE it. Netflix, I need more!)  I read books.  I occasionally craft something - I love the finished product; it makes all the work totally worth it to see something awesome and say, HOT DIGGITY I made that.

So, am I a horrid person? Selfish?  I don't know. Maybe some days.  Maybe the days where I spent a good chunk of YESTERDAY on the couch buried in a book and do the same thing today. That's not really ideal. 

But it's about balance, right?

So much easier said than done.

But you HAVE to do it. You HAVE to.  Seriously.

Think about it.  How are YOU your best self? What do you have to do for YOU to be me.  Think about people you like to be around - are they happy people, who are pretty good at being me, or are they....not.  I find lousy me people can really suck you dry - it can be such an effort to be around them a lot because you're almost trying to compensate for their lack of meness or something. I don't know what happens. It's like Eeyore or Tigger: who would you rather invite to a party? You know?

If I'm not my best me, I CAN'T be Mom. A good wife. The world's greatest daughter, sister, an A student, best friend, world class daughter-and-sister-in-law and favourite auntie.  A decent role model, exemplary teacher, successful (very small) business owner, capable housekeeper, loving pet owner, avid church-goer, talented music director and blogger extraordinaire.  I cannot. 

And frankly, when I'm NOT being me, when I'm not taking care of myself and I'm depressed, in a funk... no one else likes me either.  Well, obviously not no one - Mommies always love their kids even when they're idiots.  But I'm not a ray of sunshine for anyone to be around when I'm not looking after myself.  And it's indicated by my interactions, or incredible lack thereof, with people around me.  When I'm ME I'm..."popular" for lack of a better, non-high-school-term.  When I'm lost?  I'm alone. I'm a mess. I withdraw from people and they're not overly disappointed to see me go.  I'm not missed or wished for because I'm so difficult to be around. I lose potential for friendships and have rock relationships with the most important people in my life.  Little Miss gets antsy with me because I'm such a crap mom.

So yes, I'm ALL for putting others first and doing for others and service.... ask my family; they accuse me regularly of being a "people-pleaser," and I have a heck of a time saying NO - I don't like confrontation and never want to step on toes.  Don't get me wrong, I really am a huge advocate for service.

But gosh darn it, if I'm not taking care of me, myself, and I then what the heck good am I going to be TO serve anyone else?

So...go look after you, okay?  Stop making excuses.  Bob Harper tweeted this morning: "Your challenge this week is to not make any excuses! Live in the present, not on yesterday or tomorrow!"  So STOP telling yourself you're too busy, that you'll start exercising TOMORROW, or at the end of the week, or as soon as that project is over.... you are WORTH it. You DESERVE to start now. You HAVE to look after yourself, I promise you.  You will be happier and everyone you're sacrificing your me for will be happier with and for you.

And that is the end of my soapboxing for tonight.  Now where's my book...

Thankful Thursday: Everything

A few days ago my MIL sent me the above picture in an email: "Just thought this was too cute and might fit into one of your Thankful Thursdays..." 


And I LOVED it. It IS cute!  But it made me think a little - usually my Thankful Thursdays I like to pick five things I'm thankful for and write about those five things.  But...what if today, I AM just grateful for everything? Not just five things, but EVERYTHING??  


Except, maybe mosquitoes. I don't think I can ever figure out how to be grateful for mosquitoes. 


I'm thankful for my girlie - she makes my heart warm and my face grin.  She is my everything, and today I am grateful for everything. 


I'm thankful for my hubs - he drives me crazy and some days, honestly, I have to sit and wonder what on Earth made me fall in love with him in the first place because he's driving me SO insane I just want to call it quits.  But he is a fabulous man, with a fabulous heart.  He is strong where I am weak, and weak where I am strong.  Being together makes us a whole team, and I know that together we can get through anything and everything.  And today, I am grateful for everything. 


I thankful for my family, both old and new - the amazing family I grew up in, married into, and have created together with Mr. Man.  I truly believe there is nothing stronger or more important than family, and I have some of the greatest people ever in mine.  My family is everything, and today I am thankful for everything. 


I am thankful for my friends - a while ago I posted about not having friends. And I think at least sometimes, we all feel that way.  But I do have friends. I have best friends who know me and love me anyway, who accept that I am not superwoman and that sometimes the ball I drop is on our friendship, but who will never let me down and are willing to give me and my family anything, and everything.  And today, I am thankful for everything. 


I am thankful for my home, my bed, my comfortable furniture, my clothes and shoes. I am thankful for food - OH how thankful am I for food! - for the nourishment and incredible enjoyment I derive from it. For water.  I am thankful for technology, music, talents, education, books, toys, games, sports.  Photos - I love photos.  Looking at photos makes me smile.  


I am thankful for sunshine, rain, wind and snow. For falling leaves and fresh-cut grass.  For bugs and worms with their worlds to explore.  For cats and dogs, and all the beautiful creatures we share this world with. 


For flowers and trees, and the spider-plant in my living room that keeps sprouting 'babies.'  


For paint, play-doh, glue and scissors. Beads, wire, and string.  


Yes, today is a good day.  As all should be.  And today, with a cold, no work, an unemployed husband and an incredibly messy home, I am thankful.  For everything. 

Menu Monday: Cauliflower Cheese Soup

I was scowering my Mom's large collection of cookbooks a few weeks ago, looking for some new recipes to add into the rotation with my new, fabulous, totally different regular diet - lotsa' produce, protein, and DIFFERENT carbs - because, well, you know how boring it is to eat the SAME thing over and over and over and over.....   ANYway.  I found some great ones!

This is one of them (for which I had to get my hot little hands on an immersion blender... hooray new kitchen gadgets! Thanks, Mom!)

Cauliflower Cheese Soup, from Jamie Oliver's Jamie's Food Revolution

Ingredients:

• 2 carrots
• 2 celery stalks
• 2 medium-sized onions
• 2 cloves garlic
• 8 cups cauliflower florets
• olive oil
• 1 3/4 quarts chicken or vegetable broth
• salt & pepper
• 8 oz cheddar cheese
• 1 tsp English mustard (I had Dijon mustard, so that's what I used)

Directions:

Peel & roughly slice carrots.  Slice the celery.  Peel & roughly chop onions.  Peel & slice garlic.  Cut cauliflower into 1/2 inch slices.  Grate the cheddar into a bowl and put to one side for later. 

Put broth in saucepan & heat until boiling.

Put a large saucepan on medium heat and add 2 tbsp olive oil.  All all your chopped & sliced ingredions and mix together with a wooden spoon.  Cook for approximately 10-15 minutes with the lid askew, until the carrots have softened but are still holding their shape, and the onion is slightly golden.


Add the boiling broth to the vegetables.  Give the soup a good stir and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat & simmer for 10 minutes with the lid on. 

To serve your soup:
Remove the pan from the heat.  Season with salt and pepper and add the cheese and mustard.  Using an immersion blender or liquidizer pulse the soup until silky smooth.  Divide between your serving bowls and grate over some nutmeg, if you like. 

Lovely topped with some lightly fried crisp bacon.

It was SO SO SO SO SOOOOOOOOOOOOO good!! And makes, as you can imagine, a nice big batch, so I had it...most days last week while trying to recover from my death-cold. (Having a cold at the same time as your four-year-old is...not pleasant. 'Cause I don't know about you, but the secret to MY recovery is SLEEP, and I CAN'T sleep if the kid is up on and off on and off ALL FRIGGIN' NIGHT, EVERY night. It was brutal.  Mr. Man finally caught the cold, but Little Miss is better, so like, he gets off easy! GAH! What is WITH that??)

Okay, that's Menu Monday (plus a mini-rant - you are welcome!) and...time to plug into Netflix and lose some brain cells! O:-)