Zojirushi

I make steel cut oats for breakfast 2-3 times a week. Because they take a while to cook I had been cooking them the night before and reheating them in the morning, which worked alright, but I was always forgetting about it on the burner and it would boil over. Or they wouldn't be as cooked as I thought and they'd be a little crunchy. Or a little mushy. Not all the time; just enough to be annoying.

Enter Zojirushi.



When I was researching rice cookers I discovered that this brand was known for making great porridge as well as rice. And it had a timer setting.

Sold.



So in the evening I measure the oats with the handy-dandy Zojirushi measuring cup, add a pinch of salt, add water to almost the porridge 1 line (more makes them too wet for my taste), and then set the timer and do a little happy dance to the song.



You don't believe me about the dancing, do you? You should - Lance has seen it often. And if Tess is in the room she'll dance, too, because we are kindred spirits.

https://youtu.be/0MRTWSz-gmY

I tried everything I could to embed the video, but mobile YouTube won't give me the code and when I try to get to the site it always redirects me to the mobile version. A girl only has so much patience and time. Stupid technology. Well, the video is only 11 seconds long, so go watch it. It'll make you do a little happy dance.

I love my little Zojirushi. It's a very productive and happy member of our family. (Unlike stupid mobile YouTube.)

Spencer's Last 6th Grade Band Concert

I realize I have been extra terrible about blogging lately. It's not that life is so boring around here - on the contrary, most days I feel like I'm running from one chore/activity/appointment/whatever to the next, non-stop. But do you really want to hear about another one of Josh's baseball games? (Wait - have I blogged about baseball yet? I can't remember and can't be bothered to check. Well, he has FOUR games this week, so I'm sure you'll hear something.) Or about how I still don't have a garden in yet because it's been so dang cold? Or about how Cole and Josh can't seem to stop fighting All The Time? No. No you don't. Neither do I.

It's not that I've lost joy in the business of raising this family; I just don't feel the need to capture and record all the minutia anymore.

Also, Google got rid of my favorite photo editing tool, so now I'm having to test out new ones. Blergh. What a pain.

Also, it's just so much easier to post a little blurb on Instagram and Facebook. Not as detailed, true, but way easier. I need some sort of happy medium.

Also, I have still yet to find an acceptable replacement for Blurb to make my blog books. I have honestly caught myself thinking "Why blog about it? The kids will never see it. It's not like they're gonna go back and sift through my blog posts." I mean, I could be totally wrong on this - they might actually prefer digital over print in this case. But I might be right.

Anywho...

This past week was Spencer's last 6th grade band concert. Only Tess and I could make it (cub scouts and such). I can honestly say it was better than the first concert! (Hah!) Actually, it really was. I'm impressed with how much they improved. I'm also very impressed with the band teacher. It takes a special kind of spirit to become a middle school band teacher!!!

Here's Spencer's band playing the theme song from Batman. (My favorite part is Tess singing along at the beginning.)

And here's his band playing "Ghostbusters". You can tell the kids weren't that into saying "Ghostbusters!" at the appropriate points. (I think they were jealous that the other bands got to play Star Wars songs. Who wouldn't be?)

We had a pleasant surprise at the concert: Spencer won an award! I didn't even know this was a thing. I was, in fact, so surprised by it that I didn't even get a picture of him accepting the award. But I got one after!

Spencer was SO VERY PLEASED with himself - it was darling. Wait, can 12 year old middle schoolers be darling? Well, whatever the equivalent is, that's what he was. Kids congratulated him as we walked down the hall and patted him on his back. He handled it very gracefully.

So apparently they have this award every year. The kids all vote for who is the best band member, not based on musical skill, but on friendliness and stuff like that. Spencer was the bandiest (yes, that's a word now) kid in 6th grade! I am very proud of him.

The certificate is now in a place of honor on our fridge. It's a major award.

In other news, I may or may not have been perusing through this book during the concert. (But only during the other bands' performances. I paid total attention during Spencer's!)

Yep, this is happening. Not until 2017, but there's much to be planned. I am in heaven.

Stairs

An actual conversation I had with Tess today.

Me: Um, doing cartwheels by the top of the stairs probably isn't the best idea.

Tess (all high and mighty like): I'm NOT doing cartwheels.

Me: Okaaayy, then maybe doing flips by the top of the stairs is not the best idea.

Tess (full of righteous indignation): I was NOT doing flips. I was doing SOMERSAULTS.

Me (sighing): Okay, doing somersaults by the top of the stairs is not a good idea.

Tess (as if I'm the crazy one here): Why not?!?

Sometimes I think I should just let natural selection take care of things.

Mom Fees

This sign was posted this morning.

I have already made $1 off of Josh's shoes, which were "LOST FOREVER"... sitting on top of the couch in the basement. In plain sight. Right before the bus came.

I have the feeling this will be a very lucrative program.

Sickos. Again.

Yesterday was crazy. I woke up at 1am to the sounds of Cole SHRIEKING in pain. Lance was already in there with him and explained that he thought he had an ear infection. We got him a hot water bottle for the pain and drugged him up, and he eventually went back to sleep. (So did I - about 90 minutes later. Dang it.)

That morning it was pretty obvious poor Cole's ear drum had ruptured. Goop trickled out of his ear and he was kind of disoriented. Poor Cole.

But also... very selfishly...

Very Selfishly...

Poor Mom.

Because that morning was gonna be my last morning without kiddos until school started again in the fall. (This is Tess's last week of pre-k, I help in Cole's class on Wednesday mornings and I foolishly agreed to help with Tess's field day on the Thursday.)

So dang.

But, I got over it, because if there's one person in this world who can empathize with exploding ears, it's me.

I silently prayed all morning that we'd be able to get Cole into the doctor around 10am; this would be just about the only time that would work around Tess's preschool schedule. When I talked to the nurse, guess what only time she had free? 10am! Sometimes the smallest miracles mean the most.
So instead of regular preschool that day Tess had a field trip at the Columbian Park Zoo, and she needed to be there at 9am (a 10+ minute drive away) instead of the usual 9:15am (a 4 minute drive). And in all of the hubbub of the morning I completely forgot about this time change and didn't leave the house until 9am.

I remembered the this and blanched as we pulled out of our neighborhood. And here's the thing: being late to preschool is not usually a big deal. But today was a BIG DEAL because the first thing they were doing was riding the train around the park and they had told us over and over that we couldn't be late and that they couldn't wait for anyone. And Tess had been dreaming about this train ride all week.

I may or may not have broken several speed-related traffic laws on the way.

We got there, found a parking spot, and got out as quick as possible. (Yes, I left Cole in the car. He'd only be dead weight. Plus, if someone kidnapped him it'd be their responsibility to fix his ear.) So we ran over to where her class was supposed to be - but no one was there. And the train whistled in the distance.

Oh. No.

I thought Tess was going to lose it, but then I saw one of her teachers off in the distance, walking away with some parents and kids. So we ran all the way around the giant playground, but I kept losing sight of them. We ran and ran, and then I picked Tess up because she was pretty slow. And we ran and I finally found the class...

... totally chilling under one of the picnic shelters. No hurry, no rush at all. (We were a good 15 minutes late.) And Tess perked right up and acted like this was totally normal, while I tried to not look so winded. Blergh.

So, a little sweatier and disheveled, I got back to the car and Cole and I were off - to the post office. Because I had some packages to mail and we had the time. I never go to the real post office if I can help it, but the little branch in the copy shop by us closed. Bummer.

We finally got to the doctor a little before 10am. Cole was doing a bit better now that the ibuprofen had kicked in. Notice the cotton ball keeping all the goop in. Erlack.

We didn't get to see our regular pediatrician, but we saw one of her partners, who I also love. This happened to be the same one who checked out Cole's tonsils a couple of months ago, which she remembered as soon as she looked in his throat. (I don't know if she recognized his face, but she knew those tonsils!)

We were in an out in less than 30 minutes, which was awesome because that gave me plenty of time to vote. Have you heard? There was this big presidential primary thingy going on. Yeah. Anywho, I usually vote at the Evangelical church on 9th St and 350 S. It's big and hardly ever that busy. (Except for the first Obama election. It was packed.) Usually for a primary it's dead, but not this time. I inwardly groaned at the size of the line. But in all we were probably only there for 15-20 minutes. That included a few extra seconds of me trying to convince Cole he couldn't pull out the chip card in the middle of my voting. And to also not exclaim aloud all of the names of the people I voted for.

In case you're curious, I am not a Trump fan.

AT ALL.

I am also not a Cruz fan, but he was definitely a lesser of two evils. I was all about "Lose with Cruz." Too bad the rest of Indiana wasn't. It's fairly embarrassing to be a Hoosier right now.

On the way to pick Tess up from the park Cole said "I think... I think McDonald's would help my ear feel better. Yeah, it would." How can you say no to that logic? So we stopped at McDonald's for lunch and I won more mother-of-the-year points. Cole actually dropped his fries all over the floor first thing, so I went back up front and got him a medium sized fry. Cole is the fry king - he LOVES THEM. He was in heaven.

Tess was not thrilled Cole was getting all the attention.

After lunch we stopped by WalMart to get Cole's prescriptions. Because of his ear infection history from when he was little and because of the strep that he had and that's been going around he had to have fancy antibiotics that set me back $50! After spending $1.80 for Spencer's last month this hurt.

We got home and I realized that I had just enough time to the mow the lawn. I know, you think I'm crazy. But it REALLY needed it because of all the rain we've been getting, and it was gonna rain again that night, and I really needed the exercise and I love mowing the lawn. I had to do it in record time, but it got done!

After the lawn I had to rush to get changed and pack a picnic dinner for a family of 6, because we were going to piano lessons and then from there to Josh's first game of the year. (Can you see why I felt like I was running from one thing to the next all day? That's because I WAS.)

The game was fun in a little leaguey way. Lots of errors, lots of chants. It was even kind of fun. Although the thought of watching more games this weekend? Not so fun to me. (Sorry, Josh.) But the kids seemed to have fun, and they loved that I gave them the family sized bag of chips and just let them go to town.

Josh had lots of fun during the game. He struck out the first two times, but got a base hit and helped bring in a run during the extra inning they had to play because it was a tie. The excitement!

He got a bit distracted in the outfield...

He's in a machine pitch league, which I think is perfect for this age group.

The boys (and bonus girl on their team - she's so cool!) were SO EXCITED to win! It was pretty cute. Since one of them had caught a pop fly their coach had to do 10 push ups, which they were also all excited about.

We finally made it home and got all the kids into bed. Poor Cole was so exhausted. So was I. As I got ready for bed I realized that it had been a very all-American sort of day, what with the voting and the McDonald's and the baseball and all.

You'd think the story would end here, but nope. This morning Spencer came upstairs, white as a ghost and complaining of feeling sick. Then Cole slept in, which he NEVER does, and when he did get up his ear was still draining everywhere and I couldn't expect his teacher to deal with that. So half of my kids stayed home and threw off my schedule yet again. (It would have been 3 of my kids if Josh had had his way, but that kid is a faker. From now on if he wants to stay home from school it's gonna have to be vomiting blood or a maiming or something like that.) But I'll spare you the gory details, mainly because we mostly stayed home and it was actually kind of nice.

I'm ticked off that school is ending so early this year. However, it'll be nice to get my kids away from those germ-infested schools!

So Sweet It'll Give You Caveties

This, That, & Miscellaneous Merriment

Seriously. What is going on with me and blogging? Every day I think "I should blog this." But then life gets in the way and all of a sudden it's 10pm and I'm exhausted and the last thing I want to do is blog. Blergh. It's not that things aren't as important to me anymore; I just honestly have been so busy lately! I feel like I'm running from one thing to the next, chores, projects, kid stuff... phew.

It's just been a lot. And it's so much easier to put a quick post on Instagram and Facebook.

Each of the following could probably make their own post. In my head I wax poetic while thinking about what I should blog while cleaning bathrooms/running errands/driving children hither & thither/wait in line to vote. Oh well. This'll just have to do.

******************
I think I mentioned this in my last post, but for preschool Tess had to make a paper doll that showed what she wanted to be when she grew up. (They sent home the cut out doll, we just had to decorate it.) Tess declared she wanted to be "A mommy with long hair and a baby." So that's what we made.

Does that not just make your heart melt?

I needed this. I've been feeling quite inadequate in the mother department lately. Very inadequate. But I must be doing something right if Tess wants to be like me when she grows up. Right? *sigh* I love that girl.

******************
Indiana is going crazy over their role in the presidential circus primary. In the nearly 13 years we have lived here I have NEVER received political phone calls or canvassers. Especially not for the primaries - ours are always so late in the process. But this year has been just nuts.

A Ted Cruz guy came to my door the other day. We chatted for a few minutes because he seemed like a nice guy and I had a few questions. You should've seen the look of relief on his face when I explained that he didn't have to turn me off of that misogynistic narcissist psychopath other candidate, Trump - he just had to sell me on Cruz. He found my political history surprising (registered Republican, voted for Obama in the last 2 elections, feeling quite disenfranchised with the part), but happily spent a good 5 minutes singing Cruz's praises. I don't know that I'm sold, but he is the lesser of two evils...

******************
I got to go to the temple on Friday afternoon, and it was exactly what I needed. I was able to really think about life, the universe, and everything, and even learned a few new things. This was on the 12th anniversary of my mom's death, and I thought it very fitting to be in the temple. I'm so grateful for the blessings we receive when we keep our temple covenants. I know that families can be together forever.

On a much more secular note, I also honored my mother's memory by going to Costco and coming out with a loaded cart. Actually, this cart is nothing compared to some of the carts I helped my mom load in and out of the car. The woman was a master shopper. I still have much to learn.

******************
We are in the thick of baseball season. I am still not sold, but Josh sure is. The boy LOVES it. Saturday morning was spent getting his pictures taken. I told myself up and down that I was not gonna spend any money on the overpriced crap picture stuff that was being sold. I spent $20. I also ran all the way back to the van (quite a hike - it was busy and the parking lot was full) in pouring rain to get the bat that Josh so adamantly refused earlier. Motherhood is glamorous.

Josh likes the old-timey looking socks. I'm not sure why, I think he looks kinda funny. But I also think he looks kinda cute!

He is SO EXCITED to be #1 on his team!

******************
The rest of Saturday was spent doing chores around the house, the worst of which was cleaning out the grill. Oh my gosh, I hate that chore. That's why I usually have Lance do it. But for some reason I tackled it this year and it took FOREVER. And it was so messy, it took almost as long cleaning up from it as cleaning the actual grill.

And Lance and I ran kids all over town to and from Scout activities, to and from birthday parties, etc. It was a long day.

So we went out to eat for dinner. But Tess was a PILL. So I took this picture so she could color on it and hopefully not melt down (again). Lovely.

I don't know who took this picture of Cole, but it pretty much summarizes how we all felt. And then my food was cold! Growl. But it was so busy I just let it go, because some things just aren't worth it, right? We should've just ordered pizza at home.

******************
So last night Spencer got into this box. Which was pretty funny.

And then he started dancing, which was HILARIOUS TO ME.

******************
The other day Cole and I had this little conversation:

Me: You have to be 18 to vote.
Cole: What?! 18 years old? But you're LONG AWAY FROM THAT.
Me: No, not exactly 18, older than... oh never mind... *sigh*
Cole: You are NOT 18.

Thank you, child, for reminding me that you are closer to 18 than I am.

******************
We had our first tornado warning of the season on Sunday night. Since it was bedtime we decided to just do family prayer and scripture study in the storage room. It was quite the storm.

The kids were pretty nervous at first. But we eventually moved the party out to the basement TV to watch the news. Then it was all fun and games, because hey, how often do we let them stay up an extra hour? (Answer: Only when our lives are in danger.)