Things I Love This Week: The Merry Goes 'Round

Ok, I have a confession: I love Jewel. The girls and I are thoroughly enjoying her latest children's album, The Merry Goes 'Round. We're obsessed. I mean, obsessed. And you know what? I would be obsessed with it even if I didn't have kids. My favorite song on the album is Give Me the Rainbow. 





Darling and I cannot stop singing this song as we go about our day! It's infections without being annoying. Our other favorites are Bucky the Bull, And the Green Grass Grew All Around, and Sammy the Spider. There is something about the combination of words with the melody that makes these songs so charming. I'm obsessed, I tell you! Obsessed!

Well, maybe not obsessed. Not like this, anyway:



Happy Thursday!

Karate: Train Your Body

This 1980's video of "Karate Rap" is awesome* on so many levels. It blows my mind!

*and by "awesome" I mean, "pee your pants funny"

Doctor Hoo or Doctor Hoot?

Who knew that there was a gap in my wardrobe that only a Doctor Who shirt could fill?

And speaking of owls (were we speaking of owls?), check out Brian Regan's insightful comedy about animal noises in children's literature. I mean, have you ever heard an owl say "hoot"?

Never a Dull Moment

Someone Special (still have to think up an appropriate nickname for him) and I were having one of those conversations. You know...the queasy, mushy kind that only newly-in-love couples have:  So, when did you realize that I was "the one"?

Me: "Actually, I was convinced that it couldn't possibly work out. I knew one day you'd figure out how much smarter you are than me and that would be it."

Someone Special: "Really? So when did you finally decide that I was dumb enough that this was going to work out?"

And I had a sudden vision of what our life together is going to be like:

Multi-tasking

I was going through photos of the past year, and came across this one, which I took this past summer in my backyard. In case you can't tell, this is a picture of insect copulation. I think it sums up men nicely. Here the female carries him on her back and continues to work through it all, while he rides around, concerned with only himself. Apparently, male chauvinism is not a trait confined to Homo sapiens.

Life Without Kids....

So, the kids were with their dad for a week, and I got a lot of projects accomplished. Nothing to crow about, just marked things off the "to-do" list. I got to knit, watch a movie, see a play, catch up on the laundry, clean out closets, clean in general, go shopping, get my nails done, catch up with old friends, catch up on sleep, and go out to eat, just to name a few things. I finally got to have some "me" time and really tried to pamper myself. And what I can tell you is: living your life for yourself is for the birds, because life without kids is BORING!!!!!

Of Webs and Things

Darling came to me the other day and informed me she was going to make "an elephant web" in order to "catch elephant food." She found some of my pink embroidery floss and asked me for some tape. I told her no tape on the walls, so she made the web inside her play tent. I don't know why I find this so darn creative, but I do!

Life: Pumpkin Pulls UP

I had told him that I didn't want him to do it. I begged. I pleaded. Eight months is just too soon. But, defiant and totally heedless of my wishes (he gets that from his father), there he was when I opened the door:

And he looked very smug about it, indeed.

With a lump in my throat that my last baby is growing up much too quickly, I hurried over to his bed.....and pushed him back down.

(not really!)

So Simple Pasta Salad

Here's a typical lunchtime in my household:

I get the girls their lunch. I sit with them and nurse the baby while they eat. I have my own plate of food. They crawl down off the stools and attempt to run around. Still nursing the baby, I chase them down and haul them to Time Out. During the chase, the baby quits nursing and cries in anger and frustration that his lunch has been interrupted. During the girls' four-and two minutes (respectively) in Time Out, I re-latch the baby and eat a bite of my own lunch, (hopefully using a utensil other than my fingers) while standing at the counter. Time Out is over and the girls crawl up on their stools. They finish their lunch. They take their dishes to the sink. I send them back to their rooms to play. Still holding my 22-pound, 29-inch-long baby in one arm, horizontally while he nurses, I stand at the counter and take another bite of my lunch (hopefully using a utensil other than my fingers). Screaming starts at the back of the house and gets louder as it comes closer and closer. Darling races into the kitchen pushing a pink doll stroller, looking behind her and laughing, while Doodlebug chases her, screaming, "My sthtwower! No my sthtwower! My! Myyyyyyyy!" They run around the island a few times. The baby, who was almost asleep, unlatches and cranes his head back, eyes wide, to see what has interrupted his lunch, again. I take another bite of my own lunch (hopefully using a utensil other than my fingers) and chase down the girls, boob flapping every which way until I re-snap my nursing bra. Let's hope the postman doesn't drive by, as all the blind are wide open. My lunch is left on the counter, forgotten until three hours later, when I return. Hungry, I attempt a quick algebraic equation in my head to determine how many times the germs in my food have multiplied while my lunch sat at room temperature. Unable to complete the equation, I just decide to risk it and take a few bites (hopefully using a utensil other than my fingers). Germs build immunity.

If this sounds like just another day at your house, then you need quick, easy to prepare recipes like I do. Here is a pasta salad that is simple to throw together (the hardest part is cooking the pasta!), is excellent hot or cold, is mighty tasty and is excellent leftover. It can be a side dish or a main course. And, as an added bonus, it can be eaten with your fingers if need be, without too much mess.

So Simple Pasta Salad

1 box rotini pasta, cooked according to package instructions and drained (or other shape, although I like spirals because it holds the sauce so well)
1 jar prepared pesto (I use the Classico brand)
1 wedge (big or little as you like) sharp provolone cheese, cut into small cubes
1 cooked ham steak, cut into small cubes
1/2 jar pitted katamala olives, sliced (or whole if you prefer) 

Dump all ingredients into a large bowl. Stir. Eat. Enjoy.

Additions that would be delicious:
marinated artichoke hearts
heart of palm
sundried tomatoes

Life: 7-17-10

You know you're a bit of a health-nut when your four-year-old comes to you and says, "Mommy, I need to take my fish oil."

How to Wash Fewer Dishes

My mom was complaining to me about how many dishes we wash. I said, "well that's an easy fix: get rid of half the dishes."

For some reason, she didn't appreciate that.

Note to Self:

Stop consuming the food you want to post recipes of before you take the picture.

Quick Break from Studying and a Daily Dose of Sarcasm

So, I'm reading for my classes and researching for my speeches, and I had to take a quick break and share something that I read.
While researching for my persuasive speech on breastfeeding in The Politics of Breastfeeding: When Breasts Are Bad for Business by Gabrielle Palmer, I came across this passage:

"Though any part of a woman's body can be a focus of eroticism, our era is the first in recorded history where the breast has become a public fetish for male sexual stimulation, while its primary function has diminished on a vast scale. Perhaps the only parallel is the phenomenon of foot-binding in China, when the primary use of a part of the body was sacrificed to serve the cult of sexual fetishism which celebrated female helplessness."

To counter-act this horrible exploitation of the female breast by men and the correlated decline in breastfeeding that is so detrimental to our society, I plan to start a non-profit, activist groups called "Breasts Are for Babies!"  We will have the action statement: "Take back your breasts! Go slap a man!"

I hope you had a good chuckle. I did.

(updated later)Although I tend to make light of any subject, I'd like to end on a serious note. Breastfeeding is happily again on the rise after a steady decline in this country. Cited in the her book, Gabrielle Palmer tells of one study which estimates that "...helping and supporting women breastfeeding would save more children's lives than any other public health preventive intervention, more even than immunization, or improved water sanitation."
The research I've been doing is even more compelling, though, and I plan on posting my paper when it is completed, hopefully before Thanksgiving. The evidence is compelling to me, but I'll let you decide for yourselves.

(Note: I am not here to attack anyone's feeding method of choice for their baby. Instead, I am relaying some information I have found on a topic that is completely fascinating to me)