Say "ahhhhhhhhhh"

Going to my parent's home is a little bit like having Calgon take you away. Especially during the summer months when its comfortable outside at any time of day and Grandma's garden is so inviting. Its also a little bit like fat-camp...not the kind where they make you do crazy things like drag sand bags up enormous hills, more like the spa kind where they bring you things to eat like grilled peaches brushed with blood orange infused olive oil. (mmmmm) You WILL eat healthy at mom and dad's house, and you'll probably lose wieght too.

For the kids its like a mecca of legos and construction toys (or dolly's and stuffed animals if that's what you like.) Its quiet, except for when my siblings show up, then its a party, whether mom planned it or not.

Its a nice place to be, and that's where we've been for the past several days. We're home now, with my two big-girls in tow (hooray!) just in time to enjoy one last week of summer vacation before school starts back for Gabe. Now to see what we can do for fun.

See you all in a week or so.

Lisa

blogging by cell-phone

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Realizations

I have come upon a few realizations over the past several weeks, here they are:

I like Twitter to receive specials, product updates, and other important information from retailers and restaurants.

I don't like Twitter to get people's random thoughts. They usually interrupt me at church, during a movie, or out to dinner with my family.

A portion of whole-wheat flour in your favorite pizza dough recipe makes an even better pizza dough. CrunchY!=yum.

3 year olds are both a delight, and a threat to sanity.

6 year olds know how to do alot of things, except for the things you expect them to know how to do.

12 year olds who are within days of their 13th birthday get VERY excited about becoming a teenager.

15 year olds are way too anxious to drive. ( I remember being that 15 year old!)

I have lost alot of really good habits I used to have. Fortunately, I know exactly where to find them!

Budgeting money makes it feel like you never have any money at all. I currently have almost three hundred bucks in my wallet and I feel like I can't even take the kids to McDonalds because I'm out of money. (because its set aside for another purpose.)

When you tell your kids what a budget is and why you have one, and tell them if you stick to the budget then a trip to Disneyland will come later in the year, they immediately begin insisting on sticking to the budget.

6 year olds think that a new car costs 107 trillion dollars.

Even though mommy is documented to be the worst video game player ever, she may still be asked for assistance in conquering a difficult task. If mommy gets your guy killed, its ok, because she was trying to help.

A Britta Water Pitcher is an EXCELLENT investment. Delicious water! (and always cold if you keep it filled and in the fridge)

Identifying a person's strengths, through their weaknesses, is impossible if you have a bad attitude. Even harder if you dont like the person.

Eyes say alot about a person. If your eyes remind me of Darth Sideous, I will probably steer clear of you.

I'm really excited to go to my Mom and Dad's for a couple days next week.

I'm really excited for my big girls to come to AZ for a few weeks.

School starts for Goob a full week earlier than I expected, which means we have 5 days to figure out how to do something fun to call it "summer".

I feel a little silly signing up to be in a martial arts competition. But not silly enough to skip it.

I think other people's drama is lame and don't like being around it. Ironic since I spent a huge portion of my life involving everybody in my drama. Sorry to those who I dragged down, you tried to tell me to stop it. I didn't understand back then. Now I do!

A glow stick that lasted forever would be an excellent invention.

I really want to invent something! But I only have lame ideas and zero know-how, either that or my ideas are already being done by somebody else. (ie: attractive integrated solar tiles for roofing that look like regular roofing.) grrrr.

Apparently if enough people stop listening to a radio station, they will eventually figure out its their format that sucks and do something about it.

I love an apron with pockets on it. Emily made me one for mother's day, I wear it every day. One pocket gets my cell-phone, the other gets all the little clips, bobbypins, strings, rubber bands, etc that I pick up off the floor during the day.

I may need to make another apron with pockets on it so this one can get washed.

I stink after karate.

Having a "Come to Jesus" meeting with kids about public nudity, fighting, back-talk, and other rudeness can actually have a positive effect. :)

One (very old) toilet brush for three bathrooms doesn't cut it.

I'm thinking one of those food storage machines that seals the food and sucks the air out would be a great investment now that we have a separate freezer.

Knowing what your grocery total should be before you get to the store can pay off. That way you know you've been overcharged for something when your total is 12.00 higher than you expected. It also can get you an item for free when you can show them what you were overcharged on.

108 degrees is so much cooler than 115 degrees that you catch yourself thinking "Man, its really nice out today."

I've been using my ironing board backwards for years! What else can explain that when I used it the way JP had it set up, I was able to iron his work uniform in under 5 minutes and it looked GREAT! (It was taking me 15 minutes and they'd come out terrible before).

That bag-o-random-electric-chords that we have? ( that apparently at somepoint I told JP to throw away? ) It had my sewing machine chord in it. JP keeping it saved us $47.99

If you suggest to your husband that you have recently realized that he hasn't been doing much in the way of zoning-out/stress-relief, you will find that your Wii is set up and being played in less than 15 minutes.

Lily knows the chorus to "I was wrong" by Social Distortion.

Scary Skeleton Rock Out Music is not an option for Pandora.

When a 10 year old boy asks you if you know the Lollipop song, keep your fingers crossed that they mean the one from the 50's...there is a small possibility that this is the one they mean, and you don't have to have a look of shock and horror on your face. When they start singing the oldie, smile, laugh, and do the "Pop" part.

Lowering expectations rarely results in positive change.

It is entirely possible to be happy for a friend who's experiencing tremendous and unexpected success in a career you always wanted but never had the guts to pursue.

I never thought I'd be the mom who looked forward to school going back in session. I have to admit, I'm looking forward to it.

I'm looking forward to some of my favorite blogs getting back in the groove so I can have something entertaining to read.

I have an opinion about some very popular blogs that would be quite unpopular.

I can drink 1.89 liters of water in the evening after karate, and still wake up dehydrated the next morning. I think that's somekind of special talent.

I'm excited to relearn what some of my talents are now that I have time at home.

When I get going on one of these "list" posts, I get too long winded.

If I Really Had that Time Machine

Then I would have missed out on Lily holding up my crystal necklace that once belonged to our beloved Great Aunt Margie and saying to her brother in the most powerful voice she could muster up (and for those of you who know Lily, you know that her "powerful" voice is something akin to a Chihuahua doing its "mean" bark.)

"The power of dis neck-o-wace will DESTROY you!"

So Easy A Cave Mom Can Do It

So Easy a Cave Mom Can Do It is where I share things that are completely simple, but bring great pleasure. They are usually also inexpensive, because it turns out, I'm a cheapskate. So far, this has applied to food, but in the future it may apply to something else.

Tonight, its this delicious marinade and sauce I made. It started with a small amount of inspiration from another recipe I found on Allrecipes.com, but it ended being mine entirely. Its not necessarily a unique flavor, and the application is certainly not unique, but the point is, its SIMPLE, EASY, and EVEN A CAVE MOM CAN DO IT! (That means you can too!)

We used this on Mahi Mahi, a wonderful meaty white-fish. I'm thinking it would be excellent on Chicken, and good on pork. Not sure about beef, but why not give it a try?

You will need:

3T Honey

3T Soy Sauce

3T Balsamic Vinegar

3T Olive Oil or Vegetable Oil

1 large Clove Garlic

2 -11 oz cans Mandarin Oranges.

Combine Honey, Soy Sauce and Balsamic Vinegar in blender. Blend Until combined. Slowly add oil to create an emulsion. (That's that nice place where oil and liquid combine and stay that way.)

Finely chop Garlic. Combine chopped Garlic with liquids. (I didn't put the garlic in my blender because its my blender I make shakes in and I didn't want a chocolate-garlic shake in the morning. You could just put the garlic in the blender and it would be fine).

Marinat fish for 10 minutes. Place in a lightly sprayed non-stick skillet, cook until done. Remove Fish to a seperate plate.

Seperate the juice from the fruit in the cans of oranges. Set the fruit aside for another use. (may I suggest adding the oranges to cottage cheese for a light snack later.) Add the reserved liquid to the marinating liquid. Using the same pan you cooked your fish in, pour in the liquid and bring to a boil. Reduce liquid to a thick syrup which coats the back of your spoon.

Serve over fish and rice. Side this with your favorite veggie ( we like peas) and fruit. Voila! You've got a tasty, healthy dinner. And it was both cheap AND easy. What could be better? (and if you can't get the fish inexpensively, seriously, just do chicken, even thighs would be great).

P.S. We are garlic feinds in our household and normally increase the garlic to ridiculous amounts in just about anything, but this time, keep the garlic down. Garlic would not be a pleasant dominating taste for this sauce. You want it there, don't omit it, but don't up it too much, no matter how much you think you love garlic. Let the sweet/sour flavor be the main event.