Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.
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Ever feel guilty that you skip a nightly bath time simply because you can't take one.more.minute of fighting siblings, or have a "make your own PB&J" dinner night, or maybe even think "God Bless Teachers" as your loud children run off to the bus? Well stop feeling guilty and join in on "Not Me" Monday where we can be brutally honest about our imperfections. Here we go.

We did not take a road trip this weekend which may have consisted of 22 hours in the car in a 72 hour period. Something of that manner sounds like absolute torture to anyone of child-bearing age so we certainly wouldn't think that would be a better idea than sending our children to school.

We did not comment 40820 times about the fact that the state of Iowa is about 4 different shades of brown. We might have said the words tan, brown, yellowish brown and dark brown so many times that I now think the word brown sounds funny and well, just not right. We also may have said the words soybeans, corn, soybean field and corn field about the same number of times we said brown. Those words may or may not be followed closely by the phrase "Look! A combine- guys right over there....LOOK!" After the tenth time my children did not start saying "Yes, they all look the same!"

Emily did not make a comment that sounded something like "I think Iowa is a state you only drive through; because if there aren't any towns people can't actually live here." I did not laugh and completely agree with her.

I did not say "quit fighting" or "stop arguing" or "if you fight one.more.time" at least 384 times in 72 hours and I would certainly never think to myself, "if these kids don't stop their freaking arguing I'm going to pull over and give myself a time out." And as a good mother I would never stop at Wal-Mart (remember, I ♥ Wal-Mart) and buy a bag of Charm Blow-Pops with the thinking if they have a blow-pop shoved in their blow hole they can't argue and fight as much. Nope, I would never do that!

We did not find it absolutely amusing that we had a corn field directly outside our hotel window the first night and then parked among the corn the next day at our lunch stop, in the middle of town. We did not tell everyone about this amusing fact and watch their faces say "well, yes, that is how it is here in Iowa."
After looking at so much brown we did not squeal with delight when we found a wind farm with 158 wind turbines. We did not venture off the beaten path to try and get up close and personal with the gentle giants; that would only add more time to our amazingly long road trip. I did not listen to my husband say he wants one of these in our backyard for the next two days. I did not take my city kids and plop them on a farm for 24 hours and let them run around frolicking in soybean fields and climbing silos. That kind of activity would have lead to muddy shoes and one freaked out mother contemplating the many safety violations of children on silos.

I did not listen to my city kids telling me they wished we lived on a real farm when I tried bribing them back into the car after such a short visit. Little do they know they would be doing far more work if they really did live on a real farm.

Something we did do this weekend...
We did get to visit two grandparents in one weekend and our children got to spend some quality time with their great-grandmother whom they've never really met, due to our frequent country-hopping moves. So despite the very long road trip, this weekend was priceless for all of us.

Mini made-to-order

If your house is anything like ours, a full cooked-to-order breakfast is the very last thing on your mind on weekday mornings. No, instead something like "comb your hair, did you brush your teeth?, get your bag ready, find your shoes, THE BUS IS COMING" is more like what happens daily around here. I just need to get a tape recorder and place it at the bottom of the stairs; maybe even add a countdown and then I just have to push play at the same time each morning. Hmmm...maybe I need to work on an invention.

Anyway, I can't take full credit for this idea but that doesn't stop me from sharing it with you. You know those yummy breakfast casseroles/quiche/souffle' thingermajigs? Whatever you call them they usually consist of eggs, a bit of milk, cheese and a meat; and if you are over the age of 12 you might throw in some onions and peppers. Well, I heard of the idea of making these casseroles in muffin cups and then freezing them. My children were so excited to try something other than frozen waffles, cereal, and instant oatmeal that I had to keep them from eating all the egg cups in one morning; pace yourself young grasshopper.

Disclaimer: I'm not an exact measure type of cook. No, I'm more of an "open the cabinet and throw in whatever looks like it isn't beyond the expiration date" type of cook. I did measure out what I included in these souffles but next time it might be totally different. Adapt this to your liking.

Ingredients

6 eggs
4 oz. sausage (cooked)
1/2 cup shredded cheese (I used colby-jack but use whatever kind of cheese you have in the fridge)
1/3 cup milk
salt
pepper

1. Cook your sausage and then let it cool on a paper towel. This will soak up a bit of the grease and allow it to cool enough so you don't scramble your eggs prematurely.
2. Add all the ingredients together and stir. Pour into greased muffin cups. (I made another batch with bacon to fill up the muffin pan)

3. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes. (If you use a metal pan or fill the cups less they may cook a bit quicker.) When you remove them they will be all inflated and beautiful looking. They will deflate when cooling and won't be as pretty but they taste the same. If you think they are ugly, blindfold yourself for breakfast (or your kids.)

4. Remove from pans when slightly cool (you like your fingerprints after all, no need to singe them off now) and place on a cooling rack. Once cool transfer to a freezer Ziploc and freeze.

Warm up your mini cooked-to-order breakfast in the microwave until hot.

Note: If anyone in your house is trying to lose weight like I am you can also make these with Egg Beaters. I made some yesterday using Egg Beaters and added some onions and peppers and they turned out well. Of course, Egg Beaters doesn't mean much when you eat ice cream daily. I wouldn't know anything about that though.

Tips on Tuesday

If you lose something do not spend a day, or two, and definitely not an entire week of your time searching. No. Just don't.

Look for maybe 30 minutes. If you do not find it get yourself into your vehicle and drive to the nearest store that carries the item you have lost cleverly misplaced and promptly buy yourself a new one.

I now offer you a money back guarantee* that you will find the item you lost cleverly misplaced less than one day after your return home. If you are smart you will not open the new item for 24 hours because the lost cleverly misplaced one will show up to the party, albeit a bit late. For me? I've learned to carefully open packages so that my money back guarantee is still valid.

*Money back guarantee is only valid at the retailer you purchased your item and only if you save your receipt (do it, you will find your lost item) and carefully open the package as instructed.

Wordless Wednesday

Pictures from our real picnic this weekend.

Tips on Tuesday

Today I'd like to offer up a few tips for your upcoming dental appointment. You see, being on prednisone for 5 weeks wreaks havoc on your teeth and I've spent enough time in the chair to hand out a few tips.

1. Most important- Don't ignore your teeth even though they don't hurt. Once they hurt your time in the chair will be nothing short of a trip to hell and back.

2. Try to get yourself some anti-anxiety medicine prior to your appointment. Even if you don't think you suffer from dental anxiety, that all changes when the drill happens to punch through your tooth to the root cavity.

3. If you don't have any anti-anxiety medication and can't get any beforehand raid your medicine cabinet and find some pain killers. Pain killers will work in a pinch to help make you a little loopy...loopy is always good in a dental chair.

4. Dental offices are always cold; bring a sweatshirt or just wear long sleeves. Who cares if people look at you funny for wearing long sleeves in the summer; once you try to smile and only half your lips work they will look at you funny for much different reasons; the long sleeves won't matter anymore.

5. BYOS: Bring your own socks. Refer to #4, dental offices are like mini-refrigerators and even though I'm wearing long sleeves, I want to wear my flip flops. Socks on the feet cut down on the shivers tremendously.

6. Tell the dentist right off the bat that you are hard to get numb. In my case it is true, (thanks Mom for that wonderful trait!) but even if it might not be true for you; a little extra anesthesia is never a bad thing. Heck, even raise your hand once in awhile to signal you felt a little something and they will most likely stop and give you more.

7. Pray. Pray the entire time. Please don't let her hit a nerve, please let me be numb, please don't let her drill spinning 10,000 rpms slip off and slice straight through my gums...etc. etc. etc.

8. If you stop praying think of a very happy place; the right pain killers will help you out with this.

Good luck!