Antsy

I need to get back to the gym. I'm getting antsy and restless. I need motivation. I'm getting fat again, I guess that's my motivation. I'm tired.

Today I went on a field trip with Alana's class. The local grocery store re-branded themselves and they're doing tours for the local schools. It was actually really cute because the manager came out and gave us a tour around the different sections of the store where the kids received a small item like a cookie from the bakery or an apple from produce and then "paid" a dollar (the fee for the field trip) at the check out. It was very fun for 12 very small, confused, excitable 3-4 year olds. We walked back and forth from the school since it was only three blocks and I talked to Alana's teacher a little bit. She's amazing. She has a 3 and 5 year at home as well, watches her nephew AND teaches pre-school part time. I get exhausted doing laundry. I need to start doing more.

Today I:

Went on Alana's school trip
Rented a hand snake and unplugged my shower drain that had stopped draining.
Scrubbed the pot that I'd burned rice in two days ago for over and hour and FINALLY got all the burned rice off and saved the pot. Yay for barkeeper's friend.
Couple loads of laundry
Cleaned my kitchen from top to bottom. Expect to last this about 30 seconds.

10/24

Today I:

Washed all the laundry in the house in between watching episodes of Suburgatory and Nevermind the Buzzcocks.

Casualties

So today, I burned the rice. Add this to the pot I burned last week and the one before that, and it's starting to look like I have about a 50% average. So why not buy a rice cooker you ask? HA. Well, one is that those puny rice cookers that you can buy in American stores don't make enough. And I've already killed three of them over the course of our marriage.

I started to think about the appliances I've killed over the past 8 1/2 years. So far it's been:

1 clothing iron
2 crock pots (one melted and the other started on fire. No, seriously.)
4 hand mixers (and one on the way out)
3 rice cookers
1 sewing machine (that was brought back to life)
2 toasters
1 sandwich maker (to be fair, that one was Justin)
2 waffle irons
1 blender (that predated marriage)
1 mini food processor

Whew. That's quite a list. I really am not that hard on small appliances. I think they're just crap most of the time and made to die. The best one was when I plugged in the last crock pot and it sparked and started smoking. How on earth did that happen?!? I am currently without a blender, rice cooker, crock pot, waffle iron or toaster. Anyone have a brand/model they love?

Today I:

Medical appointment
Hobby lobby (which deserves it's own blog post)
Library to return and pick up books
Costco to return a coat

The Ultimate Mommy Confession

So since I'm a stay at home mom, I really don't have a hard life. Plus Justin can work at home, which he does every Monday and usually at least one other day a week, so it's not like I'm really knowing what it's like for my working/single counterparts.

So why do I need a break from the kids?!?!?!? They are driving me CrAzY. Maybe it's the medication, maybe it's because the last time I left them with someone else was June, maybe it's the fact that I haven't ever had an overnight from the kids (seriously, I've never left my kids overnight ever. Liam is 5). The only time I spend away from kids right now is shopping or medical appointments. And getting poked in the chest is only marginally better than hauling around whiny kids.

Looking through blogs, parenting sites, facebook, etc. it's not shameful to admit to wanting to get away from kids. But heaven forbid you should actually take it. Apparently these two little monsters are supposed to be my greatest accomplishment or something. But my schedule is so wrecked right now since I have to be here 4 times a day at scheduled times to get the kids on and off the bus, and the one day a week they don't have school is taken up with speech therapy appointments 4 hours apart. Maybe I should pull them out of school for a day, leave them with someone, and actually have a day I could go into the city.

This is probably the point that I should warn Mindy that when she comes back from Utah, she'll likely be that person. Anyway, this is my post psychotic break, stream of consciousness, after sugar low and then rush blog post.

Today I:

Laundry
Grocery
Scrubbed out my hearth with tri sodium phosphate for 3 hours. It now looks worse than before.

You know those days

That you start thinking and feel depressed and start getting mad about everything and before long you're pissed at pretty much everyone you've ever met and you feel like punching the next person who crosses your path and yet you haven't said a word to anyone? That's a good description of my week. So I'm going to sit here with a pot noodle and old QI episodes to try to cheer myself up instead of verbally combusting on people who well and truly deserve it.

Today I went to:

Grocery store
Korean store
Joanns
Bank
City offices to pay utility bill

Cioppino

So, cioppino. A seafood soup from Fisherman's Wharf, the original San Francisco treat (forget that rice-a-roni stuff). There are two origins of the name, one is a bastardization of the Italian seafood soup "ciuppin". The other is when the fishermen would come back with their catches, and someone would start a soup for dinner and the fishermen would "chip in, no?" (which is how I remember how it's pronounced). Either way, it's tasty and very messy. Frozen seafood is okay, fresh is better (Costco's selection is excellent), clams and shrimp are probably the least expensive, and ultimately, it's whatever you like. The recipe I adapted is from here.

Makes 4 dinner size portions
Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup butter
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 onion, diced
1 can crushed tomatoes (28 oz)
2 cups clam juice or fish stock (or substitute chicken or veggie broth)
2 cups chicken or veggie broth or water
4 cloves crushed or minced garlic equivalent
1/2 lb baby or 2-3 gold potatoes, cubed into 1" chunks (optional, but nice to stretch it out if you are lacking seafood or want it to be a little more "full")
1 lemon, juiced or 2 tbsps lemon juice
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons dried basil
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground pepper

3-5 lbs seafood, my breakdown is usually something like this:

     1 Dungeness crab (about 2-lbs), cracked and cleaned (save the shells)

     1 to 1 1/2 lbs pounds a white fish (halibut, cod, etc), skinned and cut into 1" chunks
     1 to 1 1/2 lbs large prawns, peeled and de-veined (I like the kinds with heads and save the shells)
     1-2 lbs mussels and/or clams; soaked, scrubbed and debearded

     Other options are squid, scallops, salmon, snapper, cockles, oysters, canned clams or basically anything you want.

1/2 bunch Italian parsley, chopped for garnish, but it does add a nice crunch at the end
lemons
sourdough bread

Preparation:

Clean seafood. Combine soft parts of crab shells, and shrimp heads and shells into a saucepan, cover with water and simmer until shrimp shells are spent and soft. Drain out shells and save broth.

Meanwhile in a large pot, melt the butter with the olive oil and saute the celery and onions until soft. Add crushed tomatoes, all broths (fish stock, canned, and chicken), garlic, potatoes, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, and all spices. Simmer on low for one hour. Add more chicken stock if it gets thick (should be stew-like)

Add the crab, shrimp, and fish, and simmer another five minutes. Add the shellfish, cover the pot and simmer for 5 minutes more, or until the mussels and/or clams open and fish is tender. Serve hot with parsley and lemons and lots and lots of sourdough bread.

Stabby

I'd normally blog about tonight, but this has been one of those days that something must die. And to make sure it's not you, gentle reader, I will save the blogging for tomorrow. Maybe I'll even post my cioppino recipe.