And This Is Why I Don't Read....

I have a stack of books that I want to read. And I truly want to read them. I haven't made much of a dent in them, though. It's completely rational. I have a ton of stuff to do, and reading just isn't up there in the priorities. It should be, I know, but reading is dangerous.

Forty-eight hours ago, I knew little about Twilight. I knew that it was about Edward and Bella and that they were vampires. I knew it was based in the Pacific Northwest. And I knew that it was a love story. Oh, and I knew that there were four books, although I couldn't have told you the titles other than the first one.

Then a friend of mine lent me Twilight. She had a copy, and it meant I didn't need to buy the book or wait for the library -- although I wasn't on the wait list, so I wasn't getting it that way anytime soon anyway.

I put it into the mental pile of books I want to read. And the wee ones and I happened to go to the library that same day. I was interested in finding Love and Logic, which Dawn had recommended to me. The wee ones were occupied with their books, my husband had met me at the library and was watching them... and I snuck down into the adult section.

While there, I found Love and Logic. I've read the first three chapters so far and enjoy it. I also put myself on the wait list for the other Twilight books. I now know their names, although not the order in which they were written.

It's possible that I also picked up a Sharon Kay Penman book that I'm three quarters of the way through reading.

I left Twilight in my car, since I know that bringing it into the house would mean I'd read it. Then I got a mani/pedi. Oops. Rather than read the outdated magazines, I brought the book into the shop with me. This was Monday.

At 1:16am Monday evening, I finished Twilight. I then called the friend who lent it to me to see if she was home so I could "return" it to her. She offered to lend me the next one. She wasn't home, so I couldn't do the switch, but she volunteered to stop by my house after she finished running around for the day.

At 5pm, I had no new book. I "happened" to be driving by her house running an errand at 5:30 and decided to bring the book back to her house. She had company though, so I disappointedly just tied the bag containing Twilight to her door.

She saw me though and insisted that I come in, as it was just her MIL. And she lent me the second book. I didn't get home until 9pm from the errands I was running, but I started reading the book then.

At 8:32am, I finished the New Moon. And my friend is still not finished with Eclipse, so I have to wait for that. I just checked at the library, and I'm still eighth on the wait list.

And this, this is why I don't read. A magazine I can put down after an article and go about my day or fall asleep. A good book is always just "one more chapter" although even I know that isn't true when I think it.

Maybe it's a good thing that I don't have access to Eclipse yet. Unless I go buy it somewhere....



** EDITED TO ADD **

PS At about 10am this morning, I got an email from my local library. I have a book now waiting for me. Yep, it's Eclipse. Why not any of the others, I don't know. But tomorrow morning I'll be headed to pick it up. I didn't get it (and finish it) today only because the library closes at 9pm and I didn't check my email until 9:23pm. Apparently today's productivity will be shot tomorrow. Only one more to go after that, at least!

Tasty Tuesday!

Summer is finally working it's way to Chicago. Of course, being Chicago, winter is still fighting back. That's why it's 42 degrees today. Yesterday was mid seventies, and we had some beautiful weather on Saturday... until it dropped 30 degrees by 5pm.

Regardless, I'm done with winter, which means I've started grilling. You saw the marinated steak from last week. This week, I did lemon chicken kebabs. Yum. The wee ones usually tell me this is their favorite food ever when I make it, and I certainly feel good about feeding it to them.

Plus, marinade + grilling = easy meal!

Grilled Lemon Chicken Kebabs

Ingredients:
3 chicken breasts
2 lemons
3 cloves garlic
1/3 c olive oil
salt and pepper
1 pint grape tomatoes
1 red/orange/yellow pepper
1 Spanish onion

Trim the chicken breasts, and cut them into chunks for the skewers. Don't make them too large, or they won't cook fast enough, but you don't want them tiny either.

In a Ziploc or other container, zest one lemon and then squeeze the juice of the lemons. Peel and chop the garlic into the container. Add the olive oil and salt and pepper. You'll want more pepper and less salt than you'd expect. Mix this well, and then add the chicken.

Marinate for at least two hours but no more than four or so. You want the flavor to get into the chicken, but you don't want chicken cerviche!

While it's marinating, cut the peppers and onion into large pieces. I typically keep three onion pieces "together" vs separating them entirely. If you are using wooden skewers, soak them for a good hour or longer to ensure that you have skewers remaining when you're finished grilling.

If I'm doing this for company, I'll do chicken, pepper, chicken, onion, chicken, tomato, chicken, onion, chicken, pepper, chicken on the skewer -- and yes, I have long skewers. It looks pretty that way. If I'm just doing it at home, I'll put all the veggies on a skewer, with the chicken on separate skewers. This way I can better monitor the cooking time. See, I'm thinking!

I usually grill this on medium (I have a pretty hot grill) for five to eight minutes, turning after 4 minutes. This is really great with dilled rice, and it's perfect for a warm summer night.

And of course, as always go check out this week's Tempt My Tummy Tuesday with Blessed With Grace!

Enjoy!

Someone's Got It In For Me

This week is my vacation. And by my vacation, I mean MINE. Not the wee ones'. Not my husband's. I'm not going anywhere, but this is my week to recharge.

It all started when my parents -- who provide a ton of help to us during the week with childcare -- announced they were going to Amelia Island with an aunt and uncle for a week in April. My mom immediately started panicking. What would I do about the wee ones? Who would take them to daycare? Who would pick them up from preschool? Oh, it was a disaster and she never should have agreed to go....

I simply announced that I would take the week off work. That mollified her.

Of course, my plan was to take the week off work and keep the wee ones in school and daycare. Thus, it's my week of vacation.

It is not meant to be.

Last Wednesday, my aunt's brother passed away. The vacation was off. My mom cheerfully announced that I no longer needed to take the week off since they'd be in town now. Uhhhh, yeah.... And the guilt trip started. I'm proud of myself, though; I didn't cave.

My dad announced that they're taking the wee ones to the city on Wednesday and going to the Field Museum, and how fun. I was going, right? Uhhh, sorry, Dad, but you are soooo wrong on that one. His opinion is that since they're in town, the wee ones can just skip school all week. Yeah, not so much.

We compromised. I'm not going to the Field Museum, but they are. My Wednesday vacation day is back on.

And yesterday? My husband couldn't get out of bed. He had a fever. The veteran teacher who never gets sick was miserable. I informed him that he absolutely was not allowed to remain sick. He had to find some way to get his immune system into gear and off to school once Monday morning rolled around. And he did.

And the green noses from the wee ones? I didn't see anything, did you?

Day One of my vacation? A success.

It involved a manicure, a pedicure, and lunch with some really fun friends consisting of Lou's (good Chicago pizza for the uninitiated) and an initiation into the world of eggless cookie dough. Did I mention that I'm also 152 pages into the first Twilight book?

I feel better already.

It'll Never Look Like This Again....

Little Miss has hair issues. Unlike her brother, when she was born, she didn't have long and thick eyelashes, and her hair was pretty much nonexistent. His hair grew in thick and fast. Hers... didn't.

My mom kept telling me that mine didn't come in until I was three, and that it was thin before that -- but look how thick it is now. That comforted me for awhile. At Little Miss's third birthday, I started to question this, but people kept telling me that her hair would come.

Every month that passes, my belief falters just a little bit more. Her hair is thin, and it flies everywhere. It's always in her eyes, because it isn't thick enough to hold a barrette or long enough to tuck behind her ears. You've seen the brushing before and after pictures.

I finally gave up. This is what Little Miss is doomed to look like, forever:



So today, I took her to get her hair cut. I requested that they cut it as short as they can get away with to look "cute" and to make it appear fuller than it is. They obliged. In fact, I told her she looks just like Grandma since Grandma has the exact same haircut now. Doesn't it look cute?



I love that feeling right after you're finished with a haircut. It looks great, no hairs are out of place, and there's just this sense of peace. Until you realize that the woman used product, had a special styling brush and spent fifteen minutes styling Little Miss's hair.

Granted, the hair now looks like this:



However, I don't have the time or talent to recreate this look. Tomorrow morning when she wakes up, the dream will be over. At least until the next haircut. When I may ask them to make it even shorter in the back.

So What's Normal Anyway?

Mister Man has had developmental delays since he was an infant. The majority of his issues are driven from a lack of core strength. Without a core, he couldn't talk. Talking late means his social was delayed since he couldn't communicate. The core also delays his gross and fine motor, as you have to be able to control your core to control your shoulder to control your whole arm to control your lower arm to control you hand to control your fingers.

It's a long process to remediate this, and we're still working on it. He's been receiving therapies since he was 17 months old, and at his third birthday, he moved into a special needs school to continue his therapies. He started out in a self-contained classroom receiving over two hours of PT, OT and speech each week.

He's made huge progress with the right kinds of teachers and activities and therapists over the past two and a half years. He doesn't automatically stick out in a group of kids anymore -- although there are times he does -- and he has friends that he loves playing with who also enjoy playing with him. In accordance, his minutes of therapy have slowly decreased.

Today, we had his IEP meeting. It was a big one, as it also was the one to requalify him for an IEP, in addition to the transition to the kindergarten team at our local elementary and the annual review of his progress. And they scheduled it for an hour. Silly people!

The good news is that the meeting went well. He's made huge strides that not only I'm seeing but that the school also recognizes. They give him standardized tests to measure his skills (not academic but physical), and there were some that are now above average where all had previously been significant delays.

This made my heart sing.

Each of the therapists also gave a verbal narrative of the concerns and achievements that they've witnessed. And now? Some of them just make me shake my head. They had two concerns in particular that really make me wonder if they have a skewed version of normal. What they describe sounds fairly typical to me when I see other kids from our neighborhood and elsewhere at the age of five or six.

When Mister Man wants to get someone's attention, and that person is across the room, he'll frequently shout, "Hey!" instead of walking over to the person and addressing them by name in a quiet voice. Seriously? Seriously, this is a concern? Show me a kid who doesn't shout from across the room, please!

And another big concern is that when a therapist came over to chat with Mister Man, he was reading a book -- one of his favorite activities. The therapist began reading the book to him, then stopped reading and asked him an unrelated question. He didn't answer the question but instead said "Keep reading. What's the next word?" He didn't say please or phrase it as a question. And he wanted to (gasp) get back to his preferred activity instead of talking to the therapist. And this was cited as a social skill that he needs to work on. Uh-huh.

The good news is that with these types of criteria, I know the school won't need to worry about running out of kids who qualify to attend. Manners -- even for parents who work on them, and we do -- aren't the forte of a five year old, and that to me seems to be pretty typical. They're definitely things we need to work on, and we plan to do so, but I wouldn't call it something requiring an IEP. To me, at least, this is just education. Normal education.

And really, if these are the kinds of things that the school is focusing on now -- and there are other things, as he tends to get in people's faces when he gets excited and his fine motor is still not at age level -- I'm totally cool with that.

Mister Man, you've done a ton of really great work, and I'm so proud of you!

Doing School

If you have a child, I have a book you need to read - and I don't say that lightly. If you interact with a child, I have a book for you to read. While technically it's about stressed out high school students, it has messages for parents of kids of all ages.

When your child gets home from school, do you ask him how the test went? Do you schedule activities to make sure your kids get the best opportunities and aren't bored? Do your kids have the same definition of success that you do (go ahead, ask)?

Last night, our school district brought in Denise Clark Pope who wrote Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed-Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students. She spoke for slightly over an hour and then took audience questions.

It was powerful. Like I need to reevaluate how I do almost everything with my wee ones powerful. The statistics she quoted were really scary. The level of cheating because kids feel there is no alternative, the tiny minority that feels that homework is actually useful, the kids who check out because trying and failing is too painful, the schools where the average hours of sleep across the entire student body is under five.

And it's happening everywhere.

Kids need to get good grades and be involved in lots of activities. That way they can get into a good college. Then they need to study hard so they can graduate and get a good (read: high paying) job. Then they have to work tons of hours so they can someday be happy. And that's what being successful means.

God help me if the wee ones grow up thinking that this is success. While having enough money to live definitely reduces stress, working hard at a job you dislike can create more stress and unhappiness than being completely broke. I want the wee ones to love what they do in life -- and by life I mean so much more than the hours they spend at work. I want them to feel fulfilled. I want them to have meaning in their lives. And I want them to take the time they need in order to find it.

I went to Northwestern. I was that kid who took all the AP classes in high school and did tons of extra-curricular activities and had the leadership roles you're "supposed to" have. I got to school, and I didn't know how to fail and I was afraid to try.

I was lucky that I finally got it when at Northwestern. I figured out how to enjoy what I did (it took me all of eight weeks to drop the high pressure program I started and find a better fit of a major) and spend time with friends and things I loved. I have friends who never figured it out, and many of them still aren't happy today. While there are times that I am stressed out by work, it isn't drugery that I detest, and it isn't the only thing in my life.

So how do I make sure the wee ones figure this out before I did? How do I get them to be resilient and creative and questioning and self-seeking? Denise Clark Pope walks through all this in her book, which is a really easy read. And I need to go read it again because there's so much more to get out of it.

While kids should be presented with opportunities with extra-curricular activities, as parents we need to limit it. They need downtime to play and figure out things on their own. And as parents, we need to step back and let them. And that's the lesson that's the hardest one for me. But if I don't let the wee ones fail safely now (and that means I won't be running to school with a forgotten lunch or assignment), they'll never learn how to fail and then bounce back with a creative solution.

There is so much more in this book, so many lessons for us as parents. And when the wee ones get home from school when there's a test? I'll be asking if they felt the test was a fair test of their knowledge, if they felt they learned something from it. It's the learning experience I want to create joy in, not the grade I want them to fear.

And the wee ones? Nope, they won't be going to Northwestern. I want them to find a school that's a good fit for them. They'll end up in the right place in life regardless of what school they attend, and the studies bear that out. I was afraid to ask the questions to find a good fit, but I was lucky that it worked out. Had I known now what I had known then, I probably would have gone down an entirely different path. I don't want the wee ones to have that question someday.

And I don't think you do, either. Doing School will help you develop the child you want to raise. And the emphasis is that it's not too late. You can reel in the college senior or start with the two year old. Thank you, Denise.

This Q&A sums it up so much better than I have. But if you read one book this year, just one, make it one that counts for years to come.

Tasty Tuesday - Marinated Steak

This week, it was really easy to decide what to feature. I had a friend in town, and I happened to make one of my favorite meals -- and I often forget about it. This was one of the very first recipes I ever received from someone, shortly after I graduated from college.

The first time I made it, I made it with a then-boyfriend for my parents. We had two and a half pounds of beef tenderloin that we cooked, in addition to veggies and potatoes and biscuits and salad. And between the four of us, we ate it all. It was so good that we just couldn't stop. And my mom and I are not huge eaters.

I've made it periodically since, and it always gets rave reviews. One of my husband's friends paid it the ultimate compliment by saying there was no point going to a steakhouse because this was better. Huh.

I've used this with a variety of cuts of meat. Tenderloin is definitely the best because it's so tender, but I did NY strip this time, and it was great. The tougher the meat, the longer I marinate. Tenderloin only goes in for two or three hours. NY strip might go in all day.

Yummy Marinated Steak (I know -- it actually has no name)

Ingredients:
3/4 c soy sauce
1/4 c Worstershire sauce
2 t dry mustard
1 1/2 t pepper
1/2 c vinegar
2 (or more) cloves garlic
1/3 c lemon juice
3/4 c vegetable oil

Get out your blender. Pop in the soy, Worstershire, mustard powder, pepper (ground), vinegar, garlic, and lemon juice. Blend it up until it's well mixed. Slowly add the vegetable oil while blending until emulsified.

Put your steaks in a Ziplock bag or container, and pour the marinade over them. Store in the fridge to marinate. Turn them periodically. For the last hour, take them out of the fridge to finish. Steaks cook better when close to room temperature, and I promise that an hour out of the fridge isn't going to make the meat go bad.

Save the marinade after you take out the steaks. Put it in a saucepan and boil. Boil, boil, boil for at least ten minutes.

Grill the steaks to your preferred doneness (if you're using tenderloin, don't go past medium rare or a light medium). I sometmes save some of the marinade to baste the steaks, as well, but it isn't necessary.

Serve the steaks with the marinade sauce as an accompaniment. It's good. My visiting friend kept dipping his bread in the sauce to sop it up, putting more sauce on his plate and repeating.

I need to make this one again, now that the weather is warming up! Go check out this week's Tempt My Tummy Tuesday with Blessed With Grace!

Enjoy!