Run With The Fishes

January is full of birthdays in my family. My brother’s* one week, my step-dad the next. Not to mention the cousins birthdays right before and after Stephen’s. The most important though (sorry guys) is my mom’s.

Thank you for everything; for teaching me how to be strong and comfortable with who I am, showing me how to be a wonderful mother who can provide for her family, and always believing in me.

Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you!

* he doesn’t read the blog so there was no special tribute on his birthday for him, I’m lazy that way.

So, this isn’t really going to be full post worthy, more like a little spot. Today while Zoey and I were driving back from the beauty salon* a song played in between one of the reports on Marketplace. Zoey got really into the few seconds they played. After it was over she told me how she thought it was, “some of the most awesome music” she had ever heard.

Since she liked it so much, I decided to do a little detective work and see if I could find out just who made this wondrous music. Searching for Marketplace music took me to a post on Defective Yeti from a couple of years ago. It’s a little outdated. They no longer have the “special features” section. Instead you can click on the contact link and it will take you right to the music.

As it turns out, Zoey is going to be a techno-head. Her new favorite song is “Keep Your Fare Down” by Global Goon.

*I don’t know why, but saying that makes me feel like I could be a Golden Girl, or a character in Steel Magnolias.

Just a quick note. If you had me bookmarked as a favorite (and if you didn’t you totally should), it’s time to update your links. www.runwiththefishes.com should do the trick.

It’s time for some parental bragging.

This weekend Zoey and I went to Crockett, Texas for a UIL contest. On the way we got to drive through the Davey Crockett National Forest. It was pretty cool. I kept expecting a man to walk through with his coon-skin cap looking for a bear. According to Wikipedia though, it’s named for him because he may or may not have camped there on his way to defend the Alamo.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand. In Texas they have this thing called UIL. From what I can tell, it’s sort of like an academic contest based on grade levels. Along with 2 other kids, Zoey was selected to do the Spelling portion for 3rd grade at her school.

We left early on Saturday morning, Zoey on the school bus and a line of parents driving behind. For some reason we weren’t allowed to ride the bus, and the kids weren’t allowed to ride with their parents. When we got to the school hosting the event, the place was a madhouse, there were so many 3rd through 5th graders who were each given five dollars for snacks and lunch. The concession stand had way too many sugar options. Kids were truly spinning around in circles then crashing to the ground.

About 20 minutes before it was time for the spelling event, Zoey must have started to get nervous. She told me, “Mom, I just don’t feel like this is the right day to do this.” After she finished she was all smiles. She said she didn’t realize it was going to be so easy. For some reason she thought the person telling them the words would say them so fast that she wouldn’t be able to keep up with them.

I signed her out of the school’s custody so that she could ride back home with me. Even though the buses were leaving, we decided to stick around and hear the results. We figured after all of the practice she had done and the long trip to get there, we may as well.

Out of all of the third graders there for our region (I think her teacher said somewhere between 30 and 40), Zoey tied for 6th place! Johan, the little boy she tied with was on her team. Her teacher told us that they each missed the same number of words and both missed the same tie-breaker. She also told us that they had been doing that all throughout the preparations.

I don’t know what I was thinking, because I didn’t bring the camera with us. Johan’s mom managed to take a few of the ribbon winners though. As soon as I have a copy, I’ll put it up here.

The other day I tried a recipe that Amy at Amalah linked to because she said it was delicious. Man, was she right. I could say that it was so good that even my kids licked their plates and asked for more. But, not only would it make it sound like we were teaching them to eat like pigs*, they aren’t picky eaters to begin with.

It may come as a surprise, but shouldn’t, that I really enjoy cooking. Some of you might know that I have a separate blog where I keep all of my favorite recipes. Ones that I cook all of the time and a few that I have tried and really don’t want to lose if I can’t remember to bookmark the links or if the sites go down. It’s not really a resolution for the new year, but I am going to try a new recipe every week. The kids are also getting in on the action and picking one dinner that they will cook (from their kid’s cookbooks) each week.

Do you have any favorite recipes that you cook all the time? Any that you don’t cook all the time but that you love?

*It only sounds that way because it is true. No silverware, just bury your face in your plate and, “Show mommy how the little piggy eats“.

4 1/4 cups apple cider
3 tablespoons coarse salt
6 allspice berries
1 bay leaf
4 10-ounce bone-in center-cut pork rib chops

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
5 large leeks (white and pale green parts only), thinly sliced
1 cup whipping cream

1 1/2 pounds Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, halved, each half cut into 4 wedges
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup chicken stock or canned low-salt chicken broth
1/3 cup Calvados

Olive oil

Bring 4 cups cider, salt, allspice, and bay leaf to boil in large saucepan, stirring to dissolve salt. Cool completely. Place pork in 13×9x2-inch glass baking dish. Pour brine over. Cover; refrigerate overnight.

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in heavy large skillet over medium-low heat. Add leeks; saut� until tender, about 7 minutes. Add cream and simmer until slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (Creamed leeks can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.)

Melt remaining 2 tablespoons butter in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add apples and saut� 10 minutes. Add sugar and saut� until apples are golden, about 6 minutes longer. Add stock, then Calvados and remaining 1/4 cup cider. Simmer until liquid thickens slightly and apples are tender, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Set aside. Prepare barbecue (medium heat) or preheat broiler. Drain pork. Rinse under cold water; pat dry. Brush pork with oil. Grill or broil to desired doneness, about 5 minutes per side for medium.

Meanwhile, rewarm leeks, thinning with 1 to 3 tablespoons water if necessary. Bring apples to simmer. Spoon leeks onto plates. Top with pork, then apples.

Makes 4 servings.

Recipe from Epicurious.

As I mentioned on my main blog, this recipe was delicious. Much better than the picture looks. The first time I try a recipe, I always make it as is then experiment the next time. I did use brown sugar instead of white sugar when I cooked it. Next time, I am going to use 1/4 cup of chicken stock and 3/4 cup cream next time to give a little more flavor to the leeks. I will also be mixing different types of apples (like you would for a pie). The Granny Smith apples were a little too tart.
** the apples were pretty bitter.

It’s been noted before how much Zoey loves school.

Our schools started late today (due to icy roads). When Zoey woke up, there was no “Good Morning. Awesome, I got to sleep in!”. She immediately started crying because she thought we had forgotten to wake her up in time for school.

For the record, we never forget to wake the kids up in time for school.

So, It’s been a few days. You guys probably thought that Allison had gotten the best of me. Ha! I say to you. Poor soul who doubted me.

The new routine seems to be working. We started on Wednesday (same day as the first post). I was going to wait for the weekend, but Allison had a friend over for the afternoon and didn’t have a nap. She was exhausted by the end of the night. Everyone brushed their teeth, got kisses from dad, then marched to their beds. Since Zoey had to listen in, I read the first half of the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Then it was lights out* and time to sleep.

This has worked for the past 5 nights! She was getting out of bed a few times before settling in (now with cries of “I’m not Sleepy”, instead of, “I want my mommy”) We had a slightly rough time on Friday night because she did not want to sleep. After she got out of bed for the 5th time, I gave her an ultimatum. She still asks if I will sleep with her when I come to check on her. I told her I was not going to check on her and would certainly not sleep with her if she got out of bed one more time. She stayed in her bed.

We should have totally started doing this earlier. Here’s hoping I haven’t jinxed anything.

*When she’s in her room, Allison can’t sleep without total darkness. She gets creeped out by the shadows, even though she knows they aren’t creepy. We also don’t usually close bedroom doors at night. This means all of the lights that have any chance of shining into the girls’ room have to be turned off, at least until she falls asleep.

4lbs chicken wings

For Sauce:
2 TBS butter
12 oz (one large bottle) of Lousiana “Red Hot” sauce
1 small bottle of Tabasco
1 tbs honey or maple syrup
1 pinch of garlic powder
1 dash or Worcestershire sauce
1 dash of soy sauce
1 TBS (or more) of ketchup

Separate wings at joints.
Discard tips

Bake at 400 on greased cookie sheet for 45 minutes turning about half way through.

Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in remaining ingredients for sauce. Simmer for about 20 minutes. Fumes will be potent. Make sure your kitchen is well ventilated. If you want thicker sauce, dissolve 1 tsp corn starch into 1 tbs cold water then add into sauce. Simmer about 5 minutes. If the sauce it too spicy (why are you eating buffalo wings again?) you can add in more butter.

Put sauce and baked wings in a container that you can seal tightly, then shake it all together. Pour onto a tray and serve with celery and blue cheese dip.

Usually, I make half hot wings and half bbq wings for the kids.

It’s been almost a year since I’ve talked about our sleeping arrangements so I thought I would give you an update. That whole routine we were trying didn’t work. Allison is clearly the boss of me.

When we try to get her to lay down by herself in her own bed, she will get back out as soon as one of us leaves the room. Not once, not twice, not even just 5 times. We could go through it for a full hour with her crying about how she isn’t tired yet and just wants. “her mooooommmmmmyyyyyy”, and it wouldn’t make a difference to her.

If we lay down with her in her bed, she will talk, non-stop until Greg or I fall asleep beside her. She can snuggle with me in my bed, fall asleep and then Greg will move her over to her own bed for the rest of the night. By rest of the night, I mean 4 or 5 in the morning when she will meander into our room, crawl into our bed and sleep the rest of the morning away with us.

The past few nights we have been putting her to bed, in her room. We will tell her a story (usually about super heroes), tuck her into her blanket, and then exit the room. When whichever of us leaves, we tell her that I will be in to check on her in a little while. The plan being that she will fall asleep before I make it back in to check on her. She always asks, “After you check on me, will you sleep with me, Mom?” She is always hopeful, always sure that her mom won’t let her down.

The first night it worked ok. The second night, Greg fell asleep with her. Last night, the plan flew out the window when she asked in the cutest way ever (as she was crawling into my bed and under the sheets), “It’s ok if we snuggle a little bit first in your bed, right Mom? I feel like I need to snuggle with you.” What parent could possibly turn down the request to snuggle with their child? All she wants is some love, who am I to deny her that? Yeah, the kid clearly has my number.

I think a big part of the problem (besides being unable to listen to Allison cry for an hour) is that she and Zoey share a room. There is really no way to change this. Since Zoey is in school, a decent bedtime and actual sleep during the night are pretty important. So when Allison does cry or talk or whatever I am afraid she is going to wake up Zoey. Allison generally goes to bed later than her older siblings. She sleeps later than they do in the mornings and sometimes takes a nap during the day. I thought this would be a good routine to keep up because it lets Greg sleep in just a little bit longer also. They usually wake up right as we are heading out the door in the mornings, so it’s not like they are sleeping in that much later than the rest of us. So, bedtime is going to change.

We’re going to go back to how we used to do it when Nathan and Zoey were much younger. Everyone is going to brush teeth, pick out things to sleep with, then head to bed at the same time. We are going to read stories out loud in the girl’s room then turn out the lights. Hopefully, Allison will see that Zoey is doing the same things and it will help ease her into a routine where she doesn’t need us in bed with her to fall asleep.

Anyone else have suggestions?