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Friday, October 28, 2011

How to handle a bad day when you're 2


What do we do in this house when we're having a bad day?

What any decent self respecting toddler would do.


Double-fisted applesauce shoveling.



That's how we roll.


Seriously though, I'm beginning to wonder if he has a bit of ambidexterity about him.  I was totally under the assumption that he was going to be a lefty since I usually see him eat with his left hand and he has much better fine motor control with his left hand.  But lately he's been going back and forth.  I need to take a real good look at him when he's coloring and drawing to see what he does.  Hey, I'd take a lefty or an ambidextrous kid...or a righty.  Those are just fine in my book too.
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Thursday, October 27, 2011

I am becoming my mother...

That title really might sound more ominous than it should.  Unfortunately most of the time when people make such statements as "I'm becoming my mother!" or "My parents used to do that!" it's in a negative tone.  How unfortunate.  There are of course sins of every father that the child does not wish to repeat themselves.  We are all imperfect.  However, people should focus on the good aspects of being like their parents more than they do.

Soap box aside....

I am in fact becoming my mother.  At least where my salads are concerned.

Notice the stainless steel mixing bowl.  Only a mixing bowl will do for that size salad.  Relax, it's just my medium 2qt bowl, not my large one. :)

My mother is the Queen of "Everything but the kitchen sink" salads.  Seriously.  While I don't particularly care for all the toppings she includes, I am stepping ever closer to the "...but the kitchen sink" part.  In the above salad there is:

Standard Salad fare:
-good old romaine
-carrots
-tomato
-zucchini

Standard Jamie Salad fare:
-black beans
-hummus
-lemon juice
-ACV
-Bragg's Liquid Aminos  (the 3 liquids and the hummus make a killer dressing)
-pepper

New additions today:
-Urad Dal (aka Ivory Lentils I recently picked up at the Indian Market and cooked up a small portion of to see if I liked it enough to go back and buy another 4lb bag before the Diwali sales went off)
-mixture of leftover regular brown lentils and ivory lentils cooked up with my Smoky Autumn Blend seasonings used to make a sandwich spread/filling
-some stray white beans
-green onions

If I had been thinking about it, some pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds would have made a nice addition.  I don't think I'm nearing the number of ingredients that my mother usually puts on a salad, but she is the Queen after all. :)  I'll keep trying Mom. ;-)

And for better or worse, I am one of those people who likes uniform flavor in her food (not dull, just uniform), so once I reach the desired ingredients and flavor, I mix it up like crazy so that every bite is evenly covered with dressing/lentils, and I try and get a small bite of each veggie in every forkful.  Yes, I am I that person, who turns a beautiful bowl of salad into a crazy stirred up mess in order to enjoy the same awesome flavor in every bite.  Don't hate me because I'm a food stirrer.

You should also know that the Ivory Lentils were just one of 4 different types of lentils picked up at the Indian Market the other day.  I can now proudly state that I have 5 different kinds of lentils in my house, several of them in 4lb bags.


Don't kid yourself, 4lb bags of any bean don't last real long in our house, especially if it's a lentil or a chickpea. 

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Gratituesday: Perspective

When one is in the middle of potty training, one needs perspective.  A whole lot of it.

When one's two year old still cannot/will not correctly chew table foods in his mouth and has to be fed purees and done exercises with every meal, one needs perspective.

Potty training has not been going swimmingly.  In fact, I have my doubts as to whether or not he's ready.  I feel a little like hitting myself in the head with a brick due to the tediousness of it, but I think I could deal with that if I truly felt like this was something he was willing to do.  When after two and a half days he cries whenever I take off his pants to have some "naked potty time", I have my doubts.

But back to my tediousness.  In my few attempts at potty training, it's the one thing that really makes me feel like not having anymore kids.  I sat on the kitchen floor Monday morning thinking in the most no uncertain terms, that I was done having kids and didn't ever want to go through this again.  And for those of you that know me, you know considering stopping after one kid is just not on my list.  But this is tedious.  I almost hate it more than his daily eating therapy.  Actually I do hate it more than the actual act of therapy, but the length of time we've been doing his dysphagia therapy outweighs the more unpleasantness of the actual act of potty training.  One kid and I feel like potty training has defeated me already.  I'm sure all you mother's of multiple potty trained kids are laughing at me right now.

Anyways, back to Gratituesday and the actual topic: perspective.  This morning I read this article called Notes from a Dragon Mom.  I would encourage you to read it, but do know it was absolutely heart wrenching.  Confession: I did in fact cry, a lot.  My heart broke for the mama writing it.


If you don't feel that you can make yourself read it, the gist of it is a mother of a little 18m boy who has Tay-Sachs, an incurable genetic disease, that will likely take his life by the time he is 3 years old, and how that has altered their life.


If that doesn't give you perspective over potty training and two years of non-life threatening dysphagia therapy, I don't know what does.  Lord willing, I have a reasonable hope to enjoy my sweet baby long after he is 3 years old.  As bad as I feel it can get when I'm stuck doing exercises with a little guy who doesn't want me near his mouth, or when I've sat on the floor for two hours watching my son's every move in the hopes of catching some pee-pee in the potty, I am grateful for my reasonable hope.  I am grateful for my God-given son, whom I cherish getting spend time with, raise and love.

At the risk of sounding completely insensitive, there is one aspect to their situation that, I wouldn't exactly say that I envy, but that I wish I could implement in my daily life even without their unique circumstances.    Because her son is slowly regressing towards a vegetative state within the next few years of their lives, there is no push, no schedule, no "we must get through this for the future".   There is just today.  Just loving.

"But the day-to-day is often peaceful, even blissful. This was my day with my son: cuddling, feedings, naps."

How often would I describe my day as peaceful and only consisting of cuddling, feeding and loving my son?  Less frequent than I would like.  Mothers of non-terminally ill children have a different set of goals for living.  They plan for the future and make decisions based on future good.  Dragon Moms have today.  They have loving and living and comforting today.

I'm not jealous of her situation.  My heart grieves for that Mama and Daddy who will soon lose their precious child, but I wish I could capture the "freedom from tomorrow" mentality sometimes and remember to take days where all I do is enjoy and revel in the amazing little boy God has given us.

I do realize that no one is guaranteed tomorrow.  "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. Job 1:21"  We don't know when our time on this earth is done and we are not guaranteed tomorrow.  I know this.  But....I admit that this feels different.

So, perspective.  On the verge of feel very frustrated and declaring potty training unsuccessful at this time, I am grateful for perspective on it all.  And grateful for yet another day to enjoy my son.

NC State Fair 2011


Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

Friday, October 14, 2011

Are you a Dr. Seuss Character?

So Charlie loves reading books.  He's really enjoying some of the simpler Dr. Seuss books right now.  More specifically he loves There's a Wocket in My Pocket.  I can't really blame him - it's one of my faves too.  Don't you get your kicks from saying, "Sometimes I'm quite CERTAIN there's a JERTAIN in the CURTAIN"?

But my absolute favorite part of the book is when we get to this page.  Why?



Because Charlie always, without fail, points to the Bofa and shrieks out, "Sahhmeee!  Uncko Saahmeee!!  Dah-deee!!"

You people who know Uncle Sam and his glasses, and the crazy resemblance to William - you know exactly what I'm talking about.

And seriously, I totally got it the first time Charlie said "Uncko Saahmee!"  I knew immediately.

So how does it feel, Uncle Sammy, to resemble a Dr. Seuss character in the eyes of your two year old nephew?

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Chocolate oats anyone?

For those of you thinking "how gross!"  Don't.  It's seriously not gross, and kind of fun to eat chocolate for breakfast in the morning. :)  For those of you wondering just how sugary and unhealthy this cereal is - Don't you know me better than that by now?!  This breakfast totally not gross, it's fun to eat, very tasty AND pretty healthy too.  Not green smoothie healthy, but really not much can compare to that.  In the realm of oats, we're talking pretty tasty and good for you.

The ingredients are fairly basic too.  All you need is oats, water, non-dairy milk (like almond or soy - or regular milk works too), cinnamon, vanilla, unsweetened cocoa powder, banana and stevia (or other healthy sweetener, or sugar if you are willing to go that route).  Since bananas are naturally so sweet, they help prevent the need for oodles of sweetener to be added, plus they give this oatmeal a super creamy texture that is amazing.  I will probably never make another batch of oats again without adding a banana to it, FYI.




Chocolate Oats  ~  Serves 2

1 cups rolled oats (not instant), covered in water in a glass jar and soaked over night
1/2c water
1/2c non-dairy milk
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
2-3 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder, to taste
1 banana, thinly sliced
1/4 tsp stevia powder, or other sweetener to taste*

Soak oats in a jar covered with water, overnight.  (This cuts down on cooking time the following morning.)  Drain excess water from oats in strainer and place in pot.  Add 1/2c water and bring to a boil and let simmer (stirring occasionally) till most of the water has been absorbed and it is just beginning to stick to the bottom of the pan.  Whisk in non-dairy milk, cinnamon, vanilla, cocoa and banana slices.  Whisk until rest of liquid has been absorbed and the banana has broken down, forming a really creamy oatmeal.  Remove from stove and stir in stevia or any additional sweetener of choice.

*Note that this recipe is not a super sweet chocolate recipe.  It's just enough sweetness to combat the bitterness from the chocolate, making it a very mellow, and creamy chocolate taste - not a super sweet chocolate dessert.  Also, what sweetener you use and how much of it you use dictates how healthy or unhealthy this becomes.  One of the nice things about stevia is it's a highly concentrated, but healthy herbal sweetener, so using a 1/4tsp does the trick for me and I'm not adding a bunch of calories from processed sugar.  If you decide to stir in like 2 Tbsp of white sugar, then the healthy factor of this recipe has decreased some.

I love this a lot.  Even though it's not a really sweet chocolate flavor, it's just sweet enough to feel indulgent about eating chocolate for breakfast, while still staying healthy.  I enjoy this breakfast a lot, although not as much as the Pumpkin Overnight Oats that I've been making now that pumpkin is back in season.  I'll share that recipe soon too.  In all fairness though, hubbs does not like this recipe.  So while I enjoy chocolate oats immensely for breakfast, it was not a home run for both of us.  Take that for what you will.


But DO let me know if you try this breakfast and like, so I'll know I'm not alone in the chocolate oat love. :)

P.S.  The weirdest bit of all, this tastes good as cold leftovers.  Seriously not kidding!  Usually cold oatmeal texture skeeves me out, so in the past if my bowl of oats got cold, I couldn't finish it.  I think the addition of the banana making the texture super creamy is what makes this eatable as cold leftovers.  It becomes almost like a cold rice pudding in texture.  You may not like it, but I love it.  Bonus for me - I don't have to make breakfast the next day!


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Tuesday, October 11, 2011

I finally won a giveaway!!!

Let's all take a moment and marvel at the fact that I FINALLY WON A GIVEAWAY!!  I can't even remember the last time I entered a giveaway contest and won something.  Maybe never.  I really can't remember ever receiving anything.

But that all changed when I won this giveaway!


I was really excited to win this giveaway since these are items that I actively use or that I know I will have a bunch of fun trying out.


We currently use the NuStevia Powder sweetener in small amounts in our morning oatmeal.


The Vanilla Stevia liquid is something that I can't wait to try in coffee, oatmeal, maybe the occasional iced coffee treat (not now that we're approaching winter though - that will have to wait till summer), and things like that.



The More Fiber Baking Blend was an extra bonus the company threw in, not part of the giveaway, and was not something I'm familiar with.  Apparently it will give me more fiber and I can use it in baking as a sweetener.  Great!  I've been looking for some other sweetener options in William's morning breakfast bakes other than just straight up banana.  Don't get me wrong, I don't think he really minds if every. single. bake. is flavored with banana. and. nothing. else.  But I like to experiment with healthier sweeteners anyways, knowing that even though I personally don't consume a lot of baked goods, I'm sure that one day I will end up incorporating a bit more baking back into our diet for our children.  So this is great that I get a chance to experiment with it!

So what is stevia?  Stevia is an natural herbal sweetener that is much sweeter than sugar, much lower in carbohydrates and has negligable effect on blood glucose levels, making it a great sweetener for diabetics and other carb-controlled diets.  I love that I can add 1/4-1/2 tsp of it to my morning bowl of oats and get way more sweet bang for my buck than I could with the same amount of processed white sugar, plus I'm not putting those extra calories in my body.


So, am I excited about my first giveaway win??  Totally.  :-D

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Gratituesday: Nana and Grandbobby

I forgot to mention in my beach posts that we stopped at Nana and Grandbobby's house (William's maternal grandparents) on our way to the beach.  We are very lucky that they are about half way between home and the beach so it makes a perfect breaking point in the trip for the Charlie man to run around and let off steam.  And I FINALLY remembered to get some good shots (posted below) of just Charlie and Nana and Grandbobby, something I have been meaning to do.  Yay!

Charlie is so blessed to have 3 of his great-grandparents living, and 2 of them within easy driving distance.  I never had the chance to know any of my great-grandparents, and because we lived a good 12 hours away from all of our extended relatives, I never got to see my grandparents more than about once a year.  I loved them and appreciated them, don't get me wrong, but I wanted so badly to have a relationship with them and see them more than once a year.  I couldn't be more thrilled that (at least for the time being) Charlie has his grandparents and 2 great-grandparents all close enough to see on a regular basis.  Charlie loves spending time and Grandma and Grandpa's house, Grammy's house, and Nana and Grandbobby's house.

I'm a little surprised that he has such vivid memories of N&G's house actually.  To this day, 2 months later, he still talks about going to see "Naaahh and Bah-beee".  He even talks about seeing "Djeaanie" a lady who was there that day helping them around the house, and talks about the little lion they had there as part of a Noah's Ark toy.  He loves to talk about Nana and Grandbobby.  Sometimes he will just walk around the house saying, "Bah-bee, Bah-BEE!"  When he picked up my hair clip the other day and I told him it was a Bobby Pin, he got this gleam in his eye like, "Bobby!!  This is Grandbobby's?!?"  I just knew that's what was running through his head. :)

I love this series of shots because it shows him interacting with Nana and Grandbobby.  Sometimes small children have reservations about being around elderly people, but Charlie has no qualms about running right up and hugging Grandbobby and sitting on Nana's lap.  That indeed makes my heart glad.













Do you still have a great-grandparent that you can hug and tell how grateful you are to have them in your life?


Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!
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Monday, October 10, 2011

Smoky Black Bean Dip

I honestly have no idea why it took me this long to come up with a black bean dip.  You'd think it would have been a no brainer since I love black beans and you all know I LOVE me some dips!  Maybe it has to do with the fact that the bean dip that comes in a jar kind of skeeves me out a bit, and the one homemade black bean dip I've had was not all-that-and-a-bag-of-chips.  I did just say that.  

But finally something ended up inspiring me and, voile!  A homemade, smoky and spicy black bean dip I could eat by the spoonful.  Seriously.  I may or may not have done that already.  

Don't you love how I tried to get all fancy and garnish?  Yea I'm pretty sure parsley is the standard garnish and not cilantro.  You make do with what you have.


The best part is, it's super easy.  Even if you cook your black beans from scratch like I do  instead of dumping from a can, the dip is still super easy.

Smoky Black Bean Dip  ~  makes roughly 3 cups

3 cups black beans, cooked fresh or 2 cans worth, drained and rinsed
1 cup salsa of choice
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt  (or less if you can swing it)*
1/4-1 tsp liquid smoke (as desired)*
cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes (optional)*

Dump all ingredients into food processor and process till smooth!  That easy folks.  

*If you use canned beans (which have some salt in them), don't add any salt initially as you might not need it. If you have cooked up your beans from scratch with no salt (like I do) then you may want to use 1/4-1/2 tsp salt.
*The liquid smoke is all about preference here.  How smoky do you want it?  Start small and increase your way up.  While I ADORE smokiness and could put it in just about any food, I have discovered through an unfortunate soup incident that there is such a thing as too much liquid smoke.  
*The red pepper is totally optional.  I'm not a big fan of heat, but I'm sure my husband would love this dip even more if I added some heat.

This dip is totally yummy by itself, with chips, on Roasted Chickpea Tacos, slathered on leaves of lettuce and topped with tomatoes, on burgers and sandwiches as a spread, on your taco salad - you get the idea.  Versatile.

Hubbs declared it really good and Charlie even likes it too, so this is totally a winner in my book.  But then again, I am totally a sucker for bean dips. :)

Also, my husband just told me this morning that if he had the money, he would hire his brother to design me a shirt that said "I love beans" so I could sell it here on my website.  All I could think of was how sweet that was.  It gave me the warm fuzzies on the inside.  And no that wasn't the beans talking.  

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Friday, October 7, 2011

Roasted Chickpea Tacos

This is a recipe I have been wanting to share with you for a while, but due to all the internet issues I've been having, on top of all the regular business, it has just fallen by the wayside.  Too bad, 'cause it hasn't over here on the menu!  Fallen by the wayside that is.  We have already had it twice and probably will have it a third time soon.  It is just SO tasty!  I got the recipe from Peas and Thank You, a new blog I discovered recently.  "Mama Pea" as she calls herself has a saucy writing style that initially I wasn't too in to, but now I really enjoy.  She blogs about all things vegan and yummy and she is the one to credit for this recipe.  In fact, I think this is one of the few recipes that I haven't altered at all....except the lack of Daiya cheese on top.  We didn't do that.  Oh, and we added some of our own toppings.  And decreased the salt slightly.  Okay, so this recipe almost made it out without extra tampering.

Recipe adapted from Peas and Thank You.


Roasted Chickpea Tacos   ~   makes 8

2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp each, onion powder, garlic powder, dried oregano
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1/2-3/4 tsp salt (do as little as you can)
1 Tbsp lime juice
2 Tbsp water
1 14oz can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
8 crunchy taco shells
Taco Toppings: tomato, guacamole, lettuce, hummus, non-dairy cheese, Smoky Black Bean Dip

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Combine all seasonings and chickpeas in a bowl and let marinate for at least 30 minutes.  Do try and get the marinating in folks.  The second time I made them I forgot to allow time to marinate and the flavors were not as strong.

Dump chickpeas on a lightly oiled baking sheet or parchment paper and bake for 20-30 minutes until chickpeas are slightly crispy.  I didn't really think this got them to the "slightly crispy" point, rather they were no longer wet and swimming in marinade.  But it didn't matter cause they were still super tasty at this point.

Prepare taco shells according to package instructions, and then stuff shells with roasted chickpeas and toppings of choice!  

My mouth is seriously watering looking at this picture again.

These pictures were taken the first time when all we had was guac, tomatoes, and chickpeas (and lettuce which I forgot to put on for the pictures).  The next batch is where we added Smoky Black Bean Dip which I had just recently come up with, and that was a SUPER tasty addition.  I'll be posting that recipe very soon and link to it as soon as it's up.  Update 10/10/11 - Get your black bean dip love on here!

These tacos were out of this world!  Even my husband declared these were pretty darn tasty and has asked for them several times now. :)  Admittedly with crunchy taco shells involved, these don't fall on my SUPER healthy list of recipes, and if you are watching your calories/weight, you want to be careful to only consume 1 or 2 taco shells and then either eat the rest of your taco insides in a bowl, or better yet supplement with a large, tasty green salad.  :)  But whether you eat 1 or 4, these babies are Yum-MEE!

Mmm, all this taco talk makes me wish tonight was taco night tonight!  Enjoy your weekend folks!
  
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Posting in high school note style...sort of

AKA Now you can see my desperation when the internet goes....

Our internet has been going out a lot lately. A LOT.  The TWC guy was here again yesterday, for the 3rd time in the last week.  Sheesh!  I feel like my internet time, blogging especially has been spotty at best.  Just for kicks, here is a post I wrote a week ago last Wednesday, in my first day of internet withdrawal phase.  Ha.  There is actually some useful Charlie tidbits in there too if you can dig deep enough.


*****************

12:53pm Our internet is down.  It has been since early this morning.  At this point I have gone 5 hours without internet.  How am I typing this?  Well I’m doing the good old fashion type-it-up-in-Word-and-publish-later thing.  It reminds me of high school actually.  The very few times that I actually wrote notes in class…

yes I was THAT girl who didn’t pass notes – infact I TOOK notes – didn’t talk during class, and generally paid attention and would have been considered all around a teacher’s pet

…the very few times I wrote notes, it was actually something from the day I wanted to record before I had forgotten it or an email I wanted to write before my thoughts escaped me.  Then I would type up the couple of paragraphs later in an email or journal or whatever and there you have it.  Exactly what I’m doing right now, except that was paper to email, and this is MSWord to blog.  Blogging and saving for later.  The only reason I’m doing this is I have a couple spare, Charlie-free minutes, and I wanted to make note of some of the things he’s been saying lately.

Oh yea, how is life with no internet?  Bizarre.  And uncomfortable.  Not unmanageable, but uncomfortable.  I know I’m addicted to the interwebs, but it’s a little alarming to feel so unsettled when it’s not available.

Anyways, I feel like Charlie’s verbal skills have just taken off recently and I need to record some of it before I forget.  He’s starting to string words together to form phrases, and his vocabulary is just growing by leaps and bounds.

In the car the other day we were talking about all the people we knew and loved – which is essentially me rattling off names and asking Charlie if he loved them and him going “Yessth!”  - and out of the blue he just says “Uncka Sah-meee!!”  That was the first time he had ever paired the “uncle” title with any of his uncles’ names in an understandable-by-a-stranger kind of way.  (So Sam, you should feel mighty fine as the first.)

“Oh-keeee” is his latest go-to word and I hear it all day long.  Do you want to go to the park?  “Ohh-keee!”  Can you go get E-O?  “Ohh-keee!”  Do you want apple sauce?  “Ohhh-KEEEE!!”  Okay has pretty much become synonymous with “yes” which I’m pretty sure is a bad thing, but it’s so cute right now I can’t reform the usage just yet.

"Eeee-meean."  Every time after praying, we hear a resounding “Eeee-meean!” from the high chair.  He has even started saying it in church whenever he hears the pastor say it, which is alternately incredibly adorable and touching, and slightly embarrassing as well when it happens so much.  He has started singing the “Amen chorus” with us at the end of service.  It’s not in tune and the rhythm is pretty out there, but he’ll sing “Eee-meean” over and over again just like we do.  That’s another Mama Moment for me.

Last night after bath time and a clean diaper were on, I told him he could go play for a little while because he was all done now.  He scrambled right up and said “Aaalll dum” which is the first time he’s attempted that phrase, and the first time he’s of his own accord just repeated something I said without me prompting. 

“I sorry” is what he had to say after he had gotten into something he wasn’t supposed to.

“Gah-gee” has morphed into “Gam-my” which I assume will one day finally morph into “Grammy”.  Maybe.  One day.  If we can just get those Rs.

There are a plethora of telephone conversations in our house now and not a half are done by me.  Here’s a sampling of any of the 20 conversations you’ll here in any given day: 

“Oh, hii, Saah-mee, uummm oh-keee, noo noo, umm ohkeee, bye.”

“Hiiiii-eeee Uncka, Ee-um, Sin-nee, Rooorr-eee, byee.”  (Those are all people, btw, not made up words.)

“Hi.  Hi.  Hiii.  Um, yessth.  Umm yessth.  Oh-KEEEE!  Bye.”

Quite frankly I’m a little mortified that that’s what I sound like on the phone and how my son perceives my conversations.

One of my faves is when he points to the little indentation below my nose and above my lip and says "foom-ball" which sounds a lot closer to "foot ball" than it does "philtrum", which is the technical term for that little crevice above your lip and below your nose.  FYI.  In case you didn't know that.  My two year old does.  He also knows where your nostril is, but can't say that worth a flip.

"Fohmbot" is what Charlie keeps asking to watch on TV.  He loves the movie “Robots” and would happily watch it any time I let him.  By the way, do you know what “Fohmbots” say?  Charlie does.  “Beep, beep, beep!”


6:01pm still without internet.  Gone nearly 12 hours without it.  Driving me up the wall.  And feeling even more pathetic because of it. 

On a good note, I still managed to muddle through my workout before Charlie gets home, even though my workouts are all internet based, and I was having a hard time remembering the whole thing.  Maybe I made up a couple of those exercises, but who cares.  My face is still red and sweaty and I still stink, so I think it counts as a workout.

Now it’s time to get some dinner and clean up the kitchen a bit before the Charlie-man gets home.

8:01pm I was able to gank some internet from a neighbor for just a couple minutes before it went away.  But now it’s gone again and I’m left typing in my Word doc and cleaning up the kitchen.

9:22pm.  I feel like I am officially losing my mind.  I want to get on the internet to check a recipe for tomorrow’s breakfast!  Nope.  No can do.  I like the ease of pulling up recipes from the internet and not having to copy them off by hand, but oh today has left me wondering what would happen if I lost my internet for multiple days in a row.  Probably half my recipes are stowed somewhere on the internet.  I am a little lost puppy who keeps trying the same thing over and over hoping that one time it will actually bring my internet back.  Going to bed.

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In case you actually made it this far, now you can see how pathetic I am without internet.  I felt pretty guilty about that.  But at least you got to hear about Charlie's really adorable phone conversations. :)