Introspective cravings

Food has vibrations, vibes, if you will. All things have vibrations. For some of you, this will be a Truth that rings obvious. For some of you, this will sound like hippie nonsense, or science misunderstood. But I don't care.

Take coffee, if you will. It has a very specific vibration, which cannot be replaced by a jumble of similar things. Coffee in the morning does something different to you than, say, a caffeine pill and a juice box.

This past week, I have been honing in on my cravings for foods of a very specific vibration; things such as brown rice with lentils and feta cheese. Roasted root vegetables with sour cream. Pumpkin soup. Tabbouleh and hummous by the pound. Lemon water. The kinds of things on here.

These foods symbolize comforting times of nesting, such as mid autumn, new babies, rebuilding, strengthening, growth and introverted introspective change and healing.

They are not things that we have in the house right now, nor are they classic July fare in anyway. I am under the strong belief that all these mothering blogs I have been fortunate enough to be swimming in and wading in now are shifting me back into this mode.

I am definately going to indulge, and I will keep you updated on how the ingestion of these specific foods affects me.

Everyday objects of profound beauty

These little glasses, warm and clean and shiny in the sun.

Secret

If you have ever ordered Little Caesars' $5 pizza, also known as Hot-N-Ready, I have a cool secret to share with you. We did it because we don't eat pepperoni, but you might want to try it just because I said so!

You do not just go in and pick up a pre-made pizza. you call them, and here is what you say:
"I would like to order a Hot-N-Ready pizza, but instead of pepperoni, I would like my one topping to be extra cheese, please."

You have to say it this way. If you just order a "Cheese pizza" you will not get the free extra cheese and you will instead get the cardboard and ketchup regular hot n ready you are already used to. But if you do the secret tech of ordering it exactly the way I have described, you will get a really decent pizza that is definately worth more than $5.

Try it!

Calmoseptine gets an A+

You have to own this product if you have a baby. It is the ONLY cure for severe, wierd, sleep-stopping, life-stopping diaper rashes of all kinds.

I got it from the pharmacy at Rite Aid. You don't need a prescription, but you have to ask for Calmoseptine at the pharmacy window. It cost $6. Even if the baby has horrificly wounded skin, they instantly stop crying and the skin is totally protected from further pain of wiping and poop and pee...while it heals---really quickly! Like, in one diaper change. Unbelievable. I am giving this out to anyone who has a baby ever again.

I am certain there are good uses for this for adults as well. It is marketed for things like bedsores and wound sites and drainage tube sites.....yikes! (But shows you how big-time this stuff is. )

The ointment itself is pink and smells funny and minty and medicinal. It is sticky and THICK.

mega menus, mega shopping

Going to Sam's Club might not seem the same as catching a big game, or gathering nuts and berries in the sun, but it fills me with a surprisingly palpable sense of security and good feelings that Farmer Jack, Kroger and Meijers never seemed to capture.

I worry if I am crazy, if I am a pawn in the consumer treadmill when I feel this good driving home with my minivan full from Sams Club. Is it demented to want to take care of your family, to stock up? I was never never never one to have 48 toilet papers "just in case", but I am starting to get it more lately. Its not some OCD fear of "what if we run out?!", but more like a sense of order and peace and organization that I am finally growing up into a real woman/wife/homemaker/mother/adult and finding not to be lame or antithetical to being spontaneous or artisitc, but rather, freeing me to have more space in my heart for this kind of "cool"stuff when I dont have to worry about what is for dinner at 730 pm when the kids should be getting off to bed not starving and crying.

I understand how to shop and how not to shop at Sams or Costco now. I get it now. I know what is a good deal for us and what is not. I know how to supplement the bulk purchases with regular ones to make good meals and to avoid "running back to the stroe" all week. How we hate our precious weekday time being used this way! After Sams club, meijers and farmers market, I still went to Walmart last night---for a cordless phone and scrubbling bubbles---but I dont want to do this! We share one car, traveling on little errands is somewhat of a chore with 4 little ones, and like I said, it just isnt frugal time management.

So
What we did get at Sams this week that has so far (Wednesday) been really a hit were:
Croissants (all sandwhiches are now so yummy and special)
Little bags of chips
Mega Feta cheese
Mega lettuce
Mega carrots
Mega barilla plus pasta (thrilled to see barilla plus now at Sams Club!)
Mega shredded cheese
Mega buttermilk pancake mix
Mega granola cereal mixed with Mega peanuts (and dried cherries from our friend)as trail mix
Mega bandaids
Mega mayonaise
Mega pickles
Mega sour cream
Mega Pierogis

So far these have gotten the most use this week. I love having stocked pantry and stocked fridge and menus. This has been a nice week.

Meals this week planned:
make yr own pizzas
pierogi + salad
ricotta-spinach-noodle-bake
mexican stuff
baked eggs with potatoes
salmon and veggies
tofu-rice-peapods

and ok, a few scooby doo macaronis to keep Mickey alive :)

Cleaning Team!

Well as I have been reporting, we are makin plenty o' changes to our lifestyle in preparation for a sucessful school year. We are working on chores and what this means, and how we can take the anger and negativity out of taking care of ourselves and our home! I do not like nagging and I do not like having to follow each child around and tell them how to do everything in life. The charts take it off of me and onto them and they can take a chart, go do it, then come back to me and say Mama! I'm done!

I have immensely enjoyed making little charts for us all, because I adore making simple drawings and I adore making instructional types of things. I am going to laminate these all once they are perfected and have them up in the hallway in a pocket folder or something.

We are also thinking about having jurisdictions, as swiped from the Duggars (the family on TLC that has 16 children--whether you think they are sickos or heroes, they do run a nice home!) which would be specific jobs that one child has that they always are in charge of. I am using the charts and overseeing the children somewhat, and am taking mental notes of who really seems to shine (haha) at certain tasks. Greta did 8 loads of laundry yesterday and seemed extremely into it, so even though we have a laminated chart for this chore, she might just end up being Laundry Person. We will see.

Since I was brilliant enough to buy "Scrubbing Bubbles" last night, which I remember from my own childhood as being absolutley as thrilling as whipped cream to spray, doing the bathroom was super fun this morning and Greta, Mickey, and Casey scoured and sprayed and shined for 45 minutes---without any squabbling, they even did the walls and floors, too! Toxic fume fun! (Yes,we opened the windows and stored out of reach)

whats cookin

This week the theme is muffins and cupcakes. I bought 3 muffin tins for the kids' birthday party and now I want to go muffin-tin-crayzee.

We bought little Jiffy mixes as well as cake mix--(did you think I meant make, make? No, not quite that adventurous right now) and enjoy putting cool whip as well as jam and butter on them. Our friend went up to NW Michigan and brought us back some dried cherries, which I never buy for the high cost, so I am certainly going to be adding those into the muffins, as well as some chocolate chip-n-cherry cookies! Y U M

Wal-Mart is where I have been buying more and more of our groceries, it really is astoundng how much lower the prices are than any other grocer--we even got a big pack of frozen Salmon fillets for $3.95 which I am making tonight with stir-fried yellow and green zucchinis from the Farmer's Market and baked potatoes.

Steve makes us black beans now from dried ones, and seasons them up and stores them in big ziploc bags in the fridge and freezer. They are on the world's healthiest foods list, and we adore them.

I bought a large bag of frozen fruit from Sam's Club about 3 weeks ago, which I had been a bit stressed over seeing as it was $8, but lemme tell ya, this thing has alot of fruit in it! We have made so, so many smoothies with this fruit and the bag is STILL hugely full. I made a smoothie for my dear pregnant sister which was so health-packed, I bet the little baby grew a pound and 20 IQ points right then and there when she drank it!
Protein Powder
Frozen fruit
Bananas
Oats
Flax Oil
Soy Milk
V-8 Splash
Ice