Things we take for granted

A quick post today. I was able to remind myself that even on days when you are feeling down, there is always something you are taking for granted that you should recognize. I used to always come home from my job and groan "what a waste of a day!" Or many days I would struggle with a person at work, or grasping a new concept, or trying to gather the right information, or WHATEVER it was that was impeding my ability to have a good day. It's all trickery. The only thing that keeps people from having a good day is their attitude, and their perspective.

To sound cliche, I think we should all count our blessings. I least I had a job. At least I had a paycheck that paid my bills. At least I interacted with people, and had copious opportunities to use my brain.

As a stay at home dad, I've transitioned from a professional life to a domestic one. It's equally, if not more demanding to keep a positive perspective and attitude. I knew many moms at my work who were envious that I was going to stay at home with my kiddo. Honestly, I can't blame them, but it's a major transition. You're interaction with grown-ups dwindles to nothing, unless your child is famous, they don't pay you, and there is not a lot of praise or immediate rewards when you're at home all day.

But on the flip side, I need to remind myself of why everyone is so envious of my position. I get to hang out with my daughter all day. We might not play all day, but we get to hang out and chat, and run and laugh a lot.

Okay, I'm going to come at today with a positive, enthusiastic and playful attitude. Get ready child of mine; we're going to have fun! Let's enjoy the time we get to spend together!

Perfectly Addicting No-Bake Cookies

If anyone follows this blog, they have probably figured out that I’m currently theme-less. In other words, you never really know what to expect, and therefore don’t follow my blog. It makes sense. I'll work on that.

Today’s topic is no-bake cookies. For those wondering if I feed my child no-bake cookies, the answer is no. My wife does. I only make them.

No-bake cookies are so simple, and require very little to make. The benefit far outweighs the effort. However, if you have little self control around sweets, these cookies will likely kill you dead. I'm not a believer in crack, but if I were, these cookies would be like crack. If crack tasted like these cookies . . . I don't know how to finish that sentence.

To make these, you have to use the right ingredients or else you shouldn’t even bother making them. You can screw them up, and I’ve done it enough to know not to mess with the key ingredients. I will share with you the perfect recipe.

It's simple enough. Almost everything is a quarter cup:

¼ Cup butter – YOU HAVE TO USE BUTTER. If you only have margarine, make brownies or something. Margarine does not make no-bake cookies.
¼ Cup milk
¼ Cup baking cocoa
1 Cup sugar

Mix that all up, and let it boil for one minute. I like to add a little salt and vanilla. Ooh, look at me go. After it’s boiled and bubbled, and you’ve stirred the sense out of it, add the rest.

¼ Cup peanut butter – I have found that the peanut butter with the most preservatives makes the best cookies. I personally prefer creamy Jif. In one of my early attempts at making these, my sister was able to pick the peanut chunks out of her cookies when I used chunky peanut butter, so I’ve never attempted since. You have to use something that’s going to set though. I used Adam’s peanut butter and it resulted in a huge embarrassing failure.

1 ¾ Cup Old Fashioned Quaker Oats oatmeal. YOU HAVE TO USE THE QUAKER’S OATS. IT HAS TO BE OLD FASHIONED. Don’t use generic. Don’t use quick oats. Don’t screw up with this key ingredient. You will regret it. If you don’t have Old Fashioned Quaker Oats, make monster cookies or something.

The best thing to do with no-bake cookies is drop them into huge globs on either wax paper, or any kind of non-stick flat surface, and toss it all in the freezer. This does many things. It cools the cookies down faster, chewy little goodies that last slightly longer and will make you quiver a little, and it will give you a “out of sight, out of mind” mentality. However, if you know they are there, you will eat them. Don’t kid yourself. This is for real. They are little inanimate demons that haunt your mind, and will keep you coming back to the freezer long after they have disappeared. But if you have read this far, you know that you’re going to make some right now.

So there you go. The batch size is purposefully small. The reason is that if you make more, you will eat more. I’ve shed many a tear in my life watching cookies get thrown away, but I do not recall ever throwing away a well-made no-bake cookie. Even the poorly made ones disappear in a timely fashion.

Until next time.

Spoon

Words on paper. Dirty Paper.

I've been lacking motivation as of late. The problem with this is that I'm really un-fun to be around when I lack motivation. Do you enjoy hanging out with someone who is tired and boring all day? Me neither. My poor daughter gets the blunt of it because I don't have the motivation to think of fun games to play, so in turn I'm chasing her around telling her to put down anything and everything she can get her hands on. If I had the energy to direct her attention to something worth playing with, that would at least buy a little bit of time for me to sit and feel sorry for myself.

As my profile suggests, my interest is in writing stories. Besides taking care of my beautiful child, the only thing I really get to do where I have a sense of accomplishment is in writing stories. They are all mine, and I plucked them out of my brain at the right moment. But when I can't seem to come up with anything, I definitely spiral into a dark mood.

The funny thing is that if I start writing about random things on my mind, I can eventually uncover something I find enjoyable enough to pursue. A month ago, I made a goal for myself to put "words on paper". Every day I would write something. Maybe it was something silly, but every day I would put words on paper. For the most part, I've followed this rule. But lately even my words on paper have been exceedingly dull. Hardly worth writing, and certainly not worth reading.

I made a new goal today. If words on paper isn't doing it for me, then I need to sketch stuff. Words on paper. Lines on paper. Let's just call it "dirty paper". Every day, I will dirty paper. That sounds kind of gross. I'll try to think of a better name for my goal.

Sometimes it takes a reframing of the mind to get back on track. I think I'm feeling better already.

Oatmeal-Blueberry-Bacon Pancakes for lunch

Nicole requested oatmeal for breakfast as she was getting ready for work. When I make oatmeal, I tend to not measure anything out, and as a consequence, I never make the correct amount. Long story short, I had a lot of leftover oatmeal at the end of breakfast.

What does one do with extra oatmeal? You throw it away, obviously. However, I decided to use it for oatmeal pancakes, which I would have for lunch.

While performing my domestic duties, I decided to make some broccoli salad, and let me just say that broccoli salad without bacon is NOT broccoli salad. So I crackled up some bacon. Yum.

Making the pancakes while crackling this bacon made me automatically leap to putting bacon in my pancakes. I’m also a firm believer in putting blueberries in my pancakes when they are available. As a result, I made myself oatmeal-blueberry-bacon pancakes, with homemade maple syrup. So delicious. My first bite sent me into immediate bliss. I then continued to gorge myself because this concoction was too delicious to walk away from after a single serving.

Michelle did not eat the bacon pancakes. I gave her a very plain oatmeal pancake, which she quickly spit out and took the rest off her plate and threw it on the ground.

Recipes: Follow the links. I’m not writing these because they aren’t mine. The maple syrup recipe is there because it’s super easy, and I don’t know where I learned it.

Oatmeal pancakes:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/oatmeal-pancakes-ii/detail.aspx
I also added a handful of blueberries, and added crispy bacon bits to individual pancakes.

Red Broccoli Salad:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/red-broccoli-salad/detail.aspx
I didn’t use as much bacon as the recipe calls for (2 pounds!), but either way, make sure the bacon is really crispy otherwise the salad smells like garbage. This is the best salad, I don’t care who you are.

Maple syrup: 1 cup sugar, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup corn syrup, dash of maple flavor. Bam.

I considered this to be a very dad-like lunch. Quite proud.

Cardboard Treasure Chest

Further cardboard fun. Today I cut out a secret super special hole in our cardboard box. I cut three edges of a rectangle, and made a little fold out in the middle of the box. To ease with opening and closing, I notched out a little piece of one of the edges.

A quick video of my proud accomplishment.

I really like this cardboard treasure chest because it's so easy, and multi-functional. I first put it on my head, and opened and closed it like a peep hole. Michelle thought that was pretty funny.

I then put the box down and would open the door, place something inside, and close the door again. I'd then open it, take the item out and close the door. She giggled about this hiding place for toys.

I think alien robot, race car, boat and spaceship will soon be on our list. Any other suggestions?

Cardboard Playdate

We had a package delivered to our house the other day, which came in a decent sized box. Inside that box was a slightly smaller box. The person shipping our package was just doubling up on protection I guess.

Both boxes are “Michelle size”. In other words, my daughter fits inside both of them. Oh these things are fun. As long as I can keep a 15 month old’s attention, I get to use my imagination to figure out what these boxes are going to be next.

They started out as simple holding containers. We would put her inside, throw some toys in, and play peek-a-boo with the edge pieces. Once that got old, the boxes were flipped on their side to make a cave we could poke our heads into. They then flipped over and we were able hide stuff in the boxes. All are mystifyingly great to the kiddo.

After about a week of these disposable toys hanging out in our living room, they’re beginning to wear a little. So I’ve begun customizing them into costumes; Calvin and Hobbes style. We’ve got the robot eyes cut out on one box, and I pulled one of the edges off, cut some eyes out and made that into what looks like a welding mask.

Cardboard magic is limited to your own imagination. I can’t wait to try out the next idea I come up with. Anyone have suggestions?

Like bugs under a rock

As someone who likes a clean place, but has a lot of difficult keeping a place clean, I do what I can, but I’m not perfect and OCD about it.

Yesterday, I thought it would be good to scrub off the table, which is three times a day assaulted by goopy hands that are quite particular about what they bring to a tightly clenched mouth. I decided to unhook the booster seat that attaches to the chair we keep at the table, since it was also thoroughly caked. I had seen a stray noodle that slipped underneath while I scrubbed, so I wanted to assess the damage.

The expression I’m about to use makes one think bugs, but let me assure you that although I feared a giant family of cockroaches were under this chair, there was not a single insect visible to the naked eye. I cannot comment on the bugs too small to see.

It was like uncovering bugs under a rock! What I uncovered though reminded me of flipping over rocks to find bugs when I was a kid. Do you remember doing that? Our old house had these giant rocks that lined the street, and I remember flipping them over one at a time to find potato bugs, beetles, worms, ants, and anything else that may have sought solace in a quiet dark place. Apparently, Michelle’s food seeks quiet dark places too. I don’t want to admit how long it’s been since that booster seat had been unhooked, but it hasn’t been terribly long. It was a good indicator of what my child hides away though. Scraps of every meal she’s had at the table since the last time that seat was moved.

To be clear, there was no mold, bugs, or stink escaping from this refuge. But it was pretty gross all the same.

What’s the lesson here? I don’t know. Clean more? Feed less? Or just move on because it’s probably going to happen again.

Exercise Reminder

I think everyone needs a personal trainer. Everyone also needs a financial advisor. Every needs someone who is NOT them to look at them and tell them how to accomplish their goals.

With that said, I'm not a big fan of people telling me what to do. But, I am someone who does better for myself when others hold me accountable.

I set my alarm every morning for 6AM. That may seem excessively early, or really late, depending on who you are, but it's a reasonable time for me to get up and get some exercise. As it turns out though, my alarm is very loud, and my snooze button makes the noise stop. Many mornings, my alarm will wake me up three to six times, before I jump out of bed to try and accomplish a third of my morning aspirations.

Anyway, today I actually got up and ran three miles. It sucked. But it was also really cool, and I feel wonderful. Sometimes it's nice to actually do what you set out to do. Maybe, just maybe I'll run tomorrow too.

Maybe.

Doing it ourselfers

With the time I've gained by staying at home with a little one, I have found myself truly fulfilling a domestic role. I do the laundry, wash dishes, scrub the toilets, etc. While each of these tasks is overwhelmingly delightful, my favorite domestic activity has been cooking things that we used to never cook.

For starters, not too long ago, Nicole decided to make some yogurt at home. If you have never made yogurt yourself, it's really not that difficult. The plus side is that you can make a half gallon at a time, and all it costs is the price of a half gallon of milk, and a little bit of time in the kitchen.

Granola is another one of those super easy and fun things that lasts forever, and is a great snack for road trips, or to mix with, you guessed it, yogurt! Super easy, and healthy too.

The really fun one we've gotten into is making bread. Why make bread? You can buy it at the grocery store and it's delicious. True. But why buy it when you can make it? It's really fun. The more we do it, the more we love it, and the better we're getting at it. There's a great feeling of satisfaction to make the dough, and to later come back to see that it rose. I found the dough doesn't rise if you don't do it right, and it's slightly heartbreaking.


Here's a look at our latest accomplishment: whole wheat and honey.


This post has absolutely no relevance to anything. I just think that sometimes it's fun to do it ourselves. I realize that I'm just now jumping on the bandwagon, but who cares.

Gymnastics

We took Michelle to gymnastics class today. The reason we take our daughter to gymnastics is so that one day she will be an Olympian. Oh, that’s not the reason? That’s right. Generally a 15 month old isn’t too interested in training to be an Olympian. I don’t know this for certain, but after watching the one to three year old children in the room, I don’t see any of them with the right attitude yet.

My daughter attends these classes because 1) we bring her there, 2) it’s the only interaction she gets with kids on a weekly basis, and 3) it’s currently the only interaction I have with grown-ups on a weekly basis. Sure the parents are weird. Sure the kids all stink and scream and snot and run around in some chaotic rhythm of arms flailing and legs splayed out all over the place. However, I feel the interaction is important. If anything, I’m helping my daughter’s immune system.

Saturday class ends at 10am, so the best part of gymnastics class is that afterwards, I get to go on a coffee date with Nicole. Michelle is pooped, and falls asleep as soon as we leave the gym, and my wife and I get to spend 30 seconds talking of our lives. It’s nice.

Diaper your selfers

We use cloth diapers. Feel free to not reference a huge post I had about them earlier. Let's just assume that you're interested in getting or already have cloth diapers for your miniature poop maker. Excellent decision.

I am one of those people who typically say "Generally I'm a _____ person." That little blank space is my way of saying "fill in the blank". Whether it's "patient" or "nice" or "ridiculously good looking", you know, whatever fits the bill.

I recall at one point thinking I had a "strong gag reflex". I realize you have to manipulate my previous statement to fill in the blank correctly, but you get the idea. I thought I had a strong gag reflex prior to cloth diapers, or as I like to call it "diaper your selfers". That's a play on "Do it yourselfers". I don't actually wear the diapers.

Too many tangents. In summary:

Cleaning poop out of cloth diapers in the toilet is gross. It doesn't sound fun, and it's actually less fun to do than it even sounds. The price we pay for diapering ourselfers.

I've yet to prove myself wrong with my "strong gag reflex" statement, but cloth diapers will put anyone to the test.

School Bus

We live in a fairly nice neighborhood on the edge of the city. We are also right next to a museum, which inherently has school buses parked on the street pretty regularly. With the start of the school year, it was no surprise for us to see a school bus parked on the street. But after it was there for a few days, we began to wonder what its story was.

While eating breakfast, Nicole asked me why the bus was there. Since I knew as much as her, I decided to make up a story:

“Well, a guy lives in there.”

“No he doesn’t. Daddy is making up a story” she said to Michelle as she bubbled her Cheerios.

“No seriously, a guy lives in there and he parks the school bus at tourist places around town to not raise any suspicion.”

“You think you’re pretty funny, don’t you” she retorted, and we decided to change the subject.

The next day, I decided to step up my game. While walking the dogs, I noticed the bus was still there, so I ran back up to the apartment, up the stairs, threw open the door and just stared at Nicole with flushed cheeks, trying to feign exasperation.

“What happened?” Her wide-eyed expression was promising.

“I went over to the school bus, and there was a guy in there. I looked in the window and he grabbed a broom and started yelling at me! 'GET AWAY FROM MY BUS!' Yeah, that's what he said. I think a guy actually lives in that school bus!”

“WHAT?! Are you serious?! Oh my gosh!” she gasped and ran over to the window to get a good look at the bus.

We looked out the window together for about ten seconds. I then turned to her, and said “Gotcha!”

My arm is still sore. She’s got a mean right hook.