The little things that remind me of my kids

Even though I have a great pic of all 4 kids as my wallpaper on my work computer it always amazes me the weird and little things that remind me of my kids:

1.  Recently had to resupply my personal stash of sticky notes - they had purple, blue and green along w/the traditional yellow.  I opted for the purple (Baby A's favorite color), blue (T's favorite color) and green (R & S's favorte colors).  Now which one do I use first?

2. Any of the little kids waiting with their mom/dad at the bus stops by the Bank.

3. When listening to Pandora.com - if a song w/a good beat comes on I immediately picture Baby A dancing away.

4. Cottage cheese - T asks for it ALL the time, and everytime I see it on the salad bar in the deli here at work his little voice pops in my head asking for some.

5. Crap in the vending machines - it's all the bad stuff the kids love that I rarely let them have.

6. My re-usable water bottle/cup at work - if I ever do bring it home I'm bombarded by T and Baby A for a drink.

7. Toilet paper - yes, toilet paper.  Baby A either doesn't use any or uses way to much.  (Can you tell I've dug a few handfuls of toilet paper out of the toilet when she's used to much.)

8. Highlighters - any time K brings the kids to my office for a visit Baby A wants to color and uses my highlighters.  I have some great highlighter art hanging in my cube at work

Homemade Yogurt

Using my new fancy crockpot  http://www.walmart.com/ip/GE-6-Quart-Digital-Slow-Cooker/12442589 I made a batch of homemade yogurt.   If I can figure out how to attach a word document I'll post the recipe. 

So far so good - it's straining right now.  First attempt didn't turn out so good.  Baby A I think was playing with the buttons and turned up the heat to high.  So by the time I added the "starter" (aka yogurt w/live active cultures) it was too hot and it killed 'em.  This time I learned my lesson and put the crockpot further back on the counter and she left it alone.

Since I doubled the recipe I had two batches to strain.  The first batch didn't take long, and turned out nice and creamy.  The 2nd batch got left a little longer (about 1/3 of the results) and was nice, thick, and creamy like Greek Yogurt.  I got a little over 2 cups from the first batch that I strained, and 1 cup from the 2nd batch.  T & Baby A got small bowls from the first batch sweetened w/ a little splenda, vanilla flavoring and sugar-free chocolate syrup.  Both inhaled it....so it must be good!!  ;)

Now I didn't have a wire mesh strainer - just a plastic one - two actually.  I set-up my largest collander with the cheese cloth, and the smaller one with a coffee filter.  Both worked equally well - did have to "stir" both to get ensure all the whey was removed.

All in all - fun project and will do again with skim or 2%.  However, did spend more time removing the finished product from the coffee filter/cheese cloth than I had making it.  On to try Cottage Cheese per T.

15mos w/o Cable TV

April 2010 we turned off our cable (aka Dish network).  Since then we've been using a basic attena on our old tube TV, and watching Netflix through our Wii.

Christmas 2010 we got a deal on a HDTV and were able to get HD channels w/our attena as well as still watch Netflix through our Wii.

Around that same time my parents gots us a nice Sony Blue-Ray player what was WiFi ready.  Now we can watch Netflix in our bedroom.

We don't watch many TV shows/series so this works for us.  Our kids still get to watch movies and cartoons either through the local channels or Netflix. 

The best is that our $100+/mo cable bill is now only $10 for our Netflix subscription.  Which is a good thing as all that money we saved is now going towards our grocery bill.  :(

Yes, we did spend some $$ upfront to get the two antennas (less than $100 total) - we don't count the new TV as we were buying that regardless of having cable or not.  It was our Christmas present to ourselves.  :)

Diary vs Diarrhea

Conversation between me, R, and S one Saturday afternoon:

While getting all 4 kids situated in the mini-van and checking that R & S had their DS with them and plugged in I noticed S was hiding something.  (His DS close to his chest.)

Me:  S what are you hiding?
(S says nothing, but R chimes in.)
R:  It's a secret
Me:  What?
R:  A secret.  You know his diarrhea.
Me:  Diarrhea?  You mean diary.  I assuming they were using the chat/text function on their DS
R:  NO - Diarrhea.  His secret writtings.
S:  Yay - it's my Diarrhea
Me:  No R, you mean Diary.  Diarrhea is runny poop.
R & S:  Really?
Me:  Yes, Diary is a journal, secret writings, etc.  Diarrhea is runny poop that you can get sometimes with a tummy ache.
R & S:  Oh (as comprehension dawns)

Mind you I did this all without luaghing, but K was in the front seat laughing hysterically to himself.

Some of our bad parent moments . . . .

1. During the summer we hardly bathe the kids - as they're usually outside playing in the blow-up pool, water guns or slip 'n slide.  Plus they all excema and frequent bathing will irritate it.

2. Baby A is my only child that'll wear PJ's to bed....the boys all insist on boxer briefs and sometimes a t-shirt

3. Give T & S their ADHD meds even on the weekends even though we've been told we don't have to

4.  Been known to send the kids to bed w/o brushing their teeth

5. Only way to get Baby A to goto bed is to bribe her w/laying in Mommy/Daddy's bed and watching "Blues Clues"

6.  Been known to make PBJ for b-fast, lunch and dinner all in one day.  Hey - they asked for it so why not?!?!

7. Half the time the kids go outside we forget sunscreen or bug repellent spray or both

8.  Baby A loves to fold towels - and I gladly let her.  And yes, I don't re-do them - just take what she folded and put 'em in the linen closet.

9.  Been known to lock myself in the bathroom for a lot longer than it takes to go pee.

10.  Can't do this w/ the boys 'cause they're getting too big or T just moves too much, but when Baby A is the first awake on a weekend day we have her come sleep w/us as 99% of the time she'll go back to sleep and so do we.

I sometimes wonder . . .

. . . . if my darling daughter knows she's not meant to be on this Earth long.  No, she's not ill or anything.  But she's so stuborn and onery - more so than all 3 boys combined - I occasionally have the flash of thought that she's not long for this world and this is her way to ensure she's remembered.  It's almost like she's trying to cram as much "living" into the time she does have.

Morbid horrible thought?  Yes it is . . . which is why it's here.  I don't dare say anything to K 'cause he'll think I'm out of my mind, etc. 

FWIW - I've only had this thought about her, and it saddens me every time I have it.  Which thankfully isn't all that often (maybe 3x in the last 2 years).