For all the bacon lovers

This month Dennys is celebrating bacon. Don't get me wrong I like bacon, in fact my Mama I nannied for 11 years ago would make sure she had bacon before asking me to do a date night babysit.  There is an item on the menu that is taking the love of bacon too far. If bloggers photos where working I'd post a picture of what I saw. They have a Maple bacon sundae. I think it looks like a joke but it's on the menu and has it's own Facebook page. Anyone willing to try it needs to let me know. I thought if I did I'd have an instant heart attack.

It's not Tuesday but I'll tackle it anyhow

So if your a working Mom you know that tackling anything on a Tuesday wont happen. You tackle all the big tasks on Saturday or Sunday. This is my norm. Today and tomorrow Warren is in Florida at a Mortgage convention. This gives me a few days off of work. I have to be home to transport kids to school and from, as this is a daily job Warren usually does.

I originally thought of going somewhere but it's been so wet her I thought I'd make a to do list and just get it done. Isn't it nice to come home to a clean house when you've been on a trip?

Today's list of things to do will be done with the help or my 4 year old and 2 year old. Not really but they will definitely increase the work for me I'm sure.

First things first. I need to start up the slow cooker. In my meal I will include boneless thigh meat, black beans and diced onions. Tonight when it all is soft and pulls apart it will be the topping on a bed or tortilla chips and covered with shredded cheese.

Next my bed room will be spot less. New sheets, dusted furniture, vacuumed and clothing thinned out for good will,and my bathroom cleaned top to bottom This should be complete by lunch time. I'm thinking today is a Mac & Cheese day.

While the boys are napping I'm going to trim my shrubs in the front yard and clean up all the berries knocked of this giant messy bush in the front yard that have started there own compost looking stuff on my driveway. I don't think it's going to rain today.

When the boys get up we'll drop off the good will bags and pick up Joe from school. Stop at Walmart for a wall clock. We cancelled cable recently and keeping time without their box has become challenging. Come home for snacks and I'll clean the office/playroom and maybe the kitchen could use a deeper clean than daily.

Tomorrow if there is still no rain. The yard has been calling me. I'm ready to get my hands dirty again at watch my boys play in the dog water dish.

The snow trip

First for the record. I don't do snow. It's cold and wet and I hate it.

My daughter goes every year with her Dad. Perfect.....something I don't have to do. Well Joey is dying to go so I broke down and planned a trip. Nothing big. Just a  couple hour drive to Arnold and home.

No! They were under emergency conditions. PG&E trucks everywhere. No place to play. I pull into The Arnold Meadowmont Lodge. Pam the clerk filled me in and said we could play in their back yard. She even called around to find us a place to stay. Between you and me I just wanted a place to warm up and take a nap before heading home. Pam opened up a heated bathroom for us to use and let the kids play. I recommend if your ever that way to give them your business. I have never had a business so nice to me knowing I would be giving them no payment. Here's their website. http://www.arnoldlodgeca.com/

Playing in her back yard was great. I could sit in the car with my butt warmer and watch the older kids play once the little ones decided they too had enough snow.

Then we went to the hotel. At this point I just wanted to relax,have a snack and warm up. We had a room in Murphy, CA. Seven miles down the hill from Arnold. Hardly any snow,  and cute little downtown area. People are walking down the street with empty wine glasses. The town is a winery town and there are tasting rooms all over the downtown area. Not very kid friendly place. The hotel we stayed at was Murphy's Historic Hotel. http://www.murphyshotel.com/ It's an old historic hotel. Not kid friendly! The room was up stairs from a bar. Murphy's...........on Yelp it says is awesome after 9 and if you need a restroom there is another one up stairs. Well there is another bathroom up stairs. A bathroom that is communal to the guests staying in the rooms. Yes that means there is no bathroom in the room,as well as no heat or TV. OK there is a space heater that too looks historical and turns on and off when it can. Their parking lot is a block a away and our room is filthy. We have a double size bed for me and four of my kids. We had to lug our sleeping bags in. Oh and no carpet. Hardwood with a ugly,thin throw rug.

After getting settled we took a walk down the main street looking for food. All the restaurants look fun for couples or groups of adults complete with live music and  wine.  We choose the Sun China to eat at. No one  is there.  Perfect! Aft. We are seated promptly and she has pot stickers ordered and cooking while we review the menu. My family is use to ordering enough for left overs so it was hard for my kids to pick one thing to share. We ordered mu-shu pork, lemon chicken and pork friend rice and hot tea.  The food comes quickly. The pot stickers have spinach, pork and mushrooms in them. Kind of weird. The lemon chicken tasted like chicken nuggets with lemon cake filling on it and the mu-shu pork was overly salty, our fried rice was fried rice with pork, no eggs or veggies. None the less my kids ate everything. No complaints. Go figure?

Back to the hotel around six o'clock. The kids have fun running up and down the halls to go to the restroom. I pick up a binder on the dresser and it says that the hotel is known for paranormal activity. Marysa knows exactly what this is. She's a huge fan of Ghost Hunters. Too bad for Joey since she filled him in. The poor baby was terrified.

The night was long. Lots of crying from all the kids. If I wasn't so tired and had more experience driving on icy roads I would have put them all in my car and left. After what seems like 5 hours I got the kids to sleep. Marysa and Joey in the bed and Sonny, Declan and my self on the floor. This is hands down the worst sleep of my life. Checking out the following morning the desk clerk asked how I slept.  Dark rings under my eyes, kids with matching rings under their eyes I told her the hotel was awful and I would never be coming back.

We drove back to Arnold to find breakfast and snow to play in. We ate at a cute place called Bristol's. The place was filled with families. We were seat quickly near a window and got to see icicles  right on the other side. Very cool for Joey who studied each one carefully.  Our order was taken and then we waited for close to forty minutes. Sonny had to go potty five times while we waited. Declan danced in circles in an open  space next to our table. The coffee was bad but my cup was always full. When breakfast came I felt like I was at Claim Jumpers. The portions were huge. The food was cooked well my kids ate until they looked like they would pop. It was a pretty good choice. I'd go back.

The parking lot had a huge field of snow. Marysa, Joey and Sonny attempted to make a snow man and played for a good hour. Declan would not go in the snow. He yelled NO SNOW. He and I played in the warm car. The kids were soaked. I had no change of cloths for Joey so he road home wrapped in a blanket and his shirt. Marysa had gone through all her pants so she wore my pants 15 times to big. Sonny slipped back in to his pajamas. I have to tell you the trip was outside of my motherly instinct. I packed and planned poorly.

Will I go back to the snow? Probably one day. Did I like my trip? NO!!!! I am still a snow hater.

My Weight Loss Journal

3/27/2011
Small successes keep my spirits up and my motivation strong. I weighed in at 181 today. Yay Me! This week I put a pair of size 12 jeans on and wore them comfortably all week. The rain made it impossible to work in my garden so this week I spent 20 minutes of my lunch doing laps down the long halls of my office building. I treated myself toSalt and Pepper Pop chips on Friday. I'm feeling good.

Pictures again next week.

My Weight Loss Journal

3/21/2011


I know everyone wants to loose weight. My story is this I have layers of issues in my back that cause chronic pain. I have been told if I loose weight it will help with my pain. The issues in my back may never leave me pain free but there are things I can do to lessen it. If loosing weight means that I can go to the grocery store, help at my kids sporting events, ride my bike, play at the park and go on vacations like camping and Disneyland I'm going to do it. I am still happy with My Fitness Pal app on my droid. It's easy to use. I weigh my self daily using my Wii Fit. I have a log of what I'm eating stored in the app. Even if my calories are perfect there are some foods that I choose not to eat as often because I notice I may be fluctuating my weight in the wrong direction.

With my back issues I am limited to what I can do as far as exercise. It has to be low impact and not in the sitting position. I walk and I garden, not lifting anything over 15 pounds. I also have a set of exercises I do laying down to improve my core muscle strength.

My progress is improving my self esteem and I can see the changing in the way I look. I'm not feeling pain relief yet but that takes time.

I hope my journal can help someone else who struggles with pain or weight.

So this is me today 5'10" 183 pounds.

Learn from my mistake

This post may offend those with a weak stomach. Today I read this great blog post on composting in your kitchen. It answered all my questions except one.My composter has liquid in it. I wanted to know if this should be drained. No where can I find any answers to my liquid in the compost bin question.

I asked the director at Sonny and Declan's preschool. After all she is who inspired me to compost after giving me three little dried up turd looking things last year on Earth day and told me to throw them in my yard. Well the little turd where made by the worms in the kids compost bin. I put them in a flower pot and the most beautiful wild flowers grew. They lasted all winter and are still sitting on my front porch.

She told me there should be no liquid. I'm puzzled because the vegetable scraps drain their liquid. This got her excited and all of a sudden she's talking about ammonia forming as white powder and having to throw everything including the worms. Well what should I do? She tells me there should be a lot of news paper in the bottom to absorb the liquid and some on top.

Feeling panicky about the compost I come home and dump in in to a huge stock pot. It was that moment I thought I was going to die. Huge globs or goo, rot, mold, slime and red wriggle worms plopped in the pot. A putrid aroma overwhelmed  the kitchen, living room and everywhere in my house. The smell was so crud my dog whimpered to be let outside and stood at our back door barking. Sonny is telling me Declan pooped until yelling at me to change his diaper. Declan is crying I NO POOPED! My head starts to hurt from tensing my face trying not to inhale through my nose.

I quickly shredded news paper and spooned the strewing compost back in to the container. Every window gets opened, air freshener sprayed like a fire extinguisher and candle lit.

Joey calmly looks at me and says. "Is that the smell of Karma?"

What a bad idea. Don't take compost out of it's container in your house EVER.

Your answer to the liquid in your composter question from where I sit in a nasty oder. Wait until the night before the trucks come to get your trash and dump it outside and start again. Use plenty of news paper before adding kitchen plant waste and worms.  Or if you have a bigger compost thing going on outside........add your bucket of oozing death and a layer of lawn clippings on top of it.

It's chick season

The boys and I went chick shopping. Actually we went to feed stores so I could find a book on raising chickens. We could see some peeps this way. The first store we went to was in Alamo, CA. I have passed by the store for years driving to work. The guy who works there knows nothing about chickens except they have four kinds. We played with the chicks a little while. It was a little troubling seeing my boys who are not gentle at all handling something so delicate. Next we went to Feed & Pet Supply 228 Hookston Rd, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523-3921 (925) 940-1200 ‎ They have a guy there that knows chickens. Their chicks are separated and labeled by breed. They have a calender of when each  breed of chick will arrive from the hatcheries. The chicks are vaccinated and some have been sexed.  I think a sexed chicken is separated male from female. I am still not clear on what that means?? They have chicken supplies including choices of coops and guided me to a book about raising chickens with kids he says he has heard nothing but positive feed back. Also told me about a chicken rescue who will take a rooster if we get one by accident. I bought the book and some red wiggler worms for my compost.

The book is called Your Chickens. by Gail Damerow. From what I can tell she wrote a whole series of books for kids about raising farm animals. I read the entire book  while letting my kids roam at Chuck E. Cheese. I'm glad I read it. It brought up a lot of answers for questions I've had.

Now that Warren is supportive of my chicken idea I need to know what I'm getting myself into. Chickens are not cats or dogs. There is a lot to learn about them that is not common know how. With cats or dogs it's easy. They need a place to go potty, eat and drink. You take them to the vet for vaccines and handle them so they are tame. There is not a lot or restrictions or permits on cats or dogs.

Chickens as a pet. I live in a suburb, in a rental with a backyard. For me I have the need to know before presenting my land lord with the idea of a chickens. This web site will show you what the laws are in your area around chickens. In Concord CA where I live I can have up to 12 chickens and roosters are OK. No permits are required. Chickens keep all the bugs away from your home. There are two major up front costs when raising chicks. First is the Brooder. This is a box or tub with a heat lamp. Chicks need to 100 degrees and the temp needs to be reduced 5 degrees every week until the chicks have all their feathers. This is when they can be introduced to their coop the second and much larger expense.

The Brooder you can buy premade or make one your self.  I have seen some really expensive brooders up to $400 and some really cheap home made ones. The basics you need in a brooder is to keep the chicks warm, clean and safe. In the book they say you can use a box with litter on the floor and a lamp you can hang over the top. The closer the lamp to the chicks the warmer they are. You'll need something to hang the lamp from, a feeder and a waterer. If you have a cat or other pet that will be interested in the chicks you will need a lid you can fasten to the box, to keep them safe. Most people keep the chicks in their house during this period.

The coop can be very pricey. The one I like is $1100 and comes with a fox proof run, is easy to clean and houses 10 chickens at Omlet . Another brand I saw at both feed stores has some less expensive choices starting about $160 dollars. They looked poorly made to me but the chicken guy fromt the second feed store said they were fine after you improve on them some.  There are also plans you can get for coops to build your self. Craigslist.org has a few small businesses that build and sale coops as well. The main thing in your chicken coop is to make sure other animals can't get to your chickens, it should be draft free, kept dry with a nesting box and a perch.

You can let your chickens run free in your yard. They will eat all the bugs and anything else the can find. Chickens learn from pecking and the area your chicken is allowed in should be free of objects that can harm them. A fench too keep dogs out is prefered and a net or chicken wire will keep other creatures from getting to your birds or your birds escaping. Young birds and smaller ones will fly.

Seem like a lot of work I don't mind doing I just worry about moving. To us a rental is temporary. We have been looking for the right house for over a year and I can't imagine moving five kids, a cat, a dog and a flock of chickens. So this year I think I'll research more seriously this year and hopefully Warren and I will find that special place where we can have chickens. I just think I need to be a grown up instead of a eager child and wait a little longer for my chickens. It seems I still have a lot of research left and shopping to do.