Never Thanked My Mom

I never thanked my mom for making my tutu.

She made it out of kelly green tulle and added dark green sequins on the ends to make it sparkle. I’ve always loved sparkles. It was for my dance recital when I was nine years old. I absolutely loved it! I felt like a professional ballerina during the recital. Even though I messed up, I still felt beautiful and free. I played with that tutu for many years and when it no longer fit my waist, I’d wear it on my head and rock out. 

This one simple act gave me years of pleasure and creative play. I imagined I was a ballerina performing in New York City, a princess dancing at a ball, or a rock star on stage. Sometimes, I used it as a mega car ramp, a tumbling tumble weed, or a volleyball. Some of my fondest memories were when I’d rock out. I’d put on my sparkly green tutu-hair, tune my air guitar, and perform my latest hits for all my fans. My fans, AKA my stuffed animals, loved it.

When she made my tutu, she was a single mom in her thirties with three kids and she worked full time. She must have been exhausted. In fact, now that I’m a parent I can empathize with how physically and emotionally drained she must have been. 

Thanks mom for making my tutu. I loved it and thank you for taking the time to give me such a wonderful gift.

Coffee

Just the name gives me goosebumps. I LOVE coffee. I could bath in it.

My Brothers

Every now and then I think of my brothers. They both died a few years back (sniff sniff). While I'm doing ok, my mom has a huge hole in her heart and it breaks my heart to know that she can't find her way through the grief. I wish things were different, I wish my brothers were still alive, I wish my parents + us kids could have gotten along. But, wishing is just wishing. I can't change the past but I can change my present behavior which will hopefully have a positive effect on the future.

In a way, their deaths did teach me to be more tolerant. I find myself more accepting of things just the way they are. I let my emotions happen, anger, happiness, sorrow - I feel them all and it's ok. Sure, I still have days when I feel lost, when I feel like I need someone's hand to hold, when I miss my brothers but to those of us who have had death visit so closely, I think we all have those days. I just wish I could pull out the shroud of grief that surrounds my mom's heart and give it a good shake. But, then, I can't really do that, that's up to her.

Ohhh, Bacon Chicken, How I Love You!

Isn't it lovely. That's not a question. It's a statement. I had a serious craving for TJ's bacon, which is the absolute best bacon there is. I know this because I've tried every brand of bacon out there. So, I got some packs just to have on hand.

But my journey to Bacon Chicken didn't begin with the idea of Bacon Chicken. I just had to come up with something for dinner. First, I brined the chicken according to the Goddess, Alice Water's, and her proportions for brining poultry. I did this in the morning. Then I let the bird air dry in the fridge for a while, breast up; this removes excess water from the skin which makes it get crisp. So, there's the bird in the fridge sitting right next to my half a dozen packages of TJ's bacon, yes, that's 6 packages of bacon. Then the idea struck me and, well, you can see the outcome. I used all the bacon in the package. I even minced some up and stuffed into the cavity along with some apple, onion, garlic, rosemary, lemon, lime, salt, and pepper. And, oh my, it tasted like the stuff of bacon dreams. Even my son loved it and he's pretty picky.

Will Ferrell

I love Will Ferrell. That's it, I love him and I love his movies. He makes me laugh. Nothing more to say.

Swimming

My son loves being in the water even though he can't swim. Earlier this week, he would just hang onto the side or bounce on the bottom until he reached the side. Wayward splashes bugged him and he'd hold his nose if he had to go under the water.

He's been taking swim lessons at the community pool for years now. In the community lesson, the teacher wants the kids to wait at the side (and do nothing if you can believe that) while they take one kid at a time to do back floats or blast offs, etc. So, the kids spend quite a bit of time just waiting and getting really cold. Since my son has little body fat, he gets extra cold, even with his wetsuit. So, I decided to add some private lessons. Sure, they're more expensive but he gets 15 minutes with the instructor as opposed to 3-5 minutes in his half-hour community pool class.

So, he's been taking 2 weeks of private swim lessons every day. Yes, he was tentative at first. He pinched his nose if he went under water. He'd cling to the side. It really looked like he was a long way from learning to swim. And yet, yesterday, my son put it all together; he learned to swim. It was glorious to watch. When he purposely dunked his head under water, I leapt to my feet and cried out with joy, "You did it!" Then he kept dunking his head under water without holding his nose. He was so proud of himself that he did it twenty more times. Then his lesson came and the teacher lead him across the pool while he took four strokes by himself, by himself! Mind you, this is the same boy that pinched his nose closed just a couple of days ago.

I felt tears welling up as I watched him testing out his new skills. It was beautiful. And, he's so proud of himself that he keeps dunking, splashing, and telling everyone that he can swim!

Tofu Can Kiss My A@#!

Yeah, I don't like tofu. It belongs in the garbage right next to all those other soy products. Why is it bad besides the fact that it tastes like crap and bounces when dropped on the floor? (I like my protein to land with a thud when it hits the floor). It's bad for you because it has these things in it called phytates. Phytic acid inhibits the uptake of vitamins in our bodies, major ones like these: calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc. If you do eat tofu, you're going to need more Vitamin D. (Vitamin D helps calcium do its job in our body.) Soy is listed in some toxic plant lists published by our own government. You might also need more B-12 if you eat soy. (B-12 is important in making blood cells and maintaining the sheath around our nerve cells.) Children of soy-pushing parents are developing at earlier ages. MSG is formed when making soy products, MSG is bad for us, remember? Thyroid cancer, anyone? How about abnormal development in children? Oh yeah! I'll take pancreatic disorders. How about plain old crabby about having to eat something that tastes like crap.

I wouldn't eat soy if you paid me. I wouldn't eat soy if I were starving. I wouldn't eat soy if it were wrapped in bacon. That says a lot, because I'll eat anything wrapped in bacon, except...

Read more about studies about with the evil soy bean: http://westonaprice.org/soy-alert/667-studies-showing-adverse-effects-of-soy.html.