I know ... I know ....

Time flies and my bloggity-blog has been left behind in the dust. Oy. I really suck at this, don't I? Six plus weeks behind now in my weekly updates? Ouch. I have so many pictures, I promise. We've had all kinds of fun days ... and not so fun admittedly, but that's to be expected with 3 teenagers in the house, right? What else can I do?

I swear I'm editing photos this weekend so I can at least attempt to get caught up, but how about in the meantime I share a recipe today as a lame sort of apology? I found this while putting a lesson together for church. It was about cooking on a budget ... and I found a load of great tips and tricks at allrecipes.com. This recipe sounded too easy and too delish to pass up, and I was right. I got thumbs up from all 5 munsters and hubby too. You should definitely give it a try.Sesame Noodles

Ingredients:

1 (16 ounce) package linguine pasta
6 cloves garlic, minced
6 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons safflower oil
6 tablespoons rice vinegar
6 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 teaspoons chili sauce
6 green onions, sliced
1 teaspoon sesame seeds, toasted

Directions:

1. Bring a pot of lightly salted water to boil. Add pasta, and cook until al dente, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain, and transfer to a serving bowl.

2. Meanwhile, place a saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in garlic, sugar, oil, vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and chili sauce. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until sugar dissolves. Pour sauce over linguine, and toss to coat. Garnish with green onions and sesame seeds.

You may want to read the reviews here to see how you'd like to adjust the recipe to your own tastes. I made it as is and threw in a couple handfuls of chopped fresh brocolli to cook with the pasta, but could've easily reduce the oil by half. Play around with it and see what works for you.

Week in Review 7/29/10

Hmm, this week had a rough start with #1 in hot water for ... not knowing how to be 16 yet. She lost her phone and driving privileges and was pretty much under lock-down except for work hours - needless to say, she pulled a double shift on Saturday to stay off my radar. ;) Sunday was the youth sacrament meeting and we got to listen to the youth tell us all about the different summer camps and youth conference. We also found out Sunday night that there was no way on Earth that #2 and Chandler were going to make it back from California anytime soon traveling standby into Salt Lake, so we had to adjust our plans.

Turns out the best fix was for #1 and I to roadtrip down to Vegas and pick the boys up from a flight there. Six hours in the car with my own daughter when we're barely speaking to each other ... let's just say neither of us were sure how we felt about it. I finished up my jetBlue shift, we each packed a bag, gave Izzy a quick bath and finished up the laundry and dishes and we were off. We topped off the tank and zipped through a carwash, grabbed some gross fast food and spent the next 40 minutes or so in awkward silence. Somehow ... thanks to my prodding, we were able to have cleared up most things between us by the time we pulled up to the Red Barn in Santaquin. We peeked around the shop and decided there wasn't anything we wanted so jumped back on the freeway. I have to say that being trapped in a car together without any other distractions and plenty of snack food isn't a bad way to work through some of these things and have a productive conversation with a teenager. (I'll have to remember that for future issues)

Anywho! We pulled into Vegas, checked into the hotel, grabbed dinner at Chili's and very quietly made fun of the couple who were sitting on the same side of their table. Next came the tricky airport business, luckily the boys were able to find us without a hitch. Back to the hotel ... kids texting and on iPods until who knows how late while I passed out. The next morning brought breakfast and the lovely drive home. Oy! Exhausting.

And believe it or not ... Wednesday was even more tiresome! I took the 3 bigs to a "Discover Scuba" class at Dive Utah and redeemed the groupons I'd purchased in June. It was a riot! The kids had a blast, but we were pretty worn out by the time we had to lug our gear back to the storage room. That night we had plans to go boating too. Scuba and boating all in the same day? Yup. Can I tell you I slept like the dead that night? Thursday we tried to keep the schedule more mellow .... it was dreamy.

Tough Love

Friday was ... TOUGH.

There was a knot in my stomach roughly the size of Texas. I knew it. I knew I was being lied to. I finished my shift with jetBlue and called my sweet Hubby. "Hon, I've got to bust her today. How should I do it?" This is never a good way to start a conversation, but it was unavoidable. I was seing red and was risking a full-fledged transformation into Psycho-Mom.

My sweet little new-driver's-license-holding-thinks-she's-so-much-smarter-than-mom of a daughter tried to pull the wool way, WAY down over my oh-so-wise-x-ray-vision-mother eyes and I just couldn't pretend to be that dumb, not for anyone. I've been trying really hard the last couple of weeks to - to loosen my grip a little and give her more freedom. She's sixteen after all and if I'm supposed to be able to let go, so to speak, when she's 18 and graduated ... it's reasonable to bend a little more here and there right now.

HOWEVER ... in light of all my recent efforts to give her those little, and sometimes not so little, bits of extra freedom, it hurt that much more when she took advantage in every way possible.

She really hurt me.

She broke my heart.

And now, I'm tagged the meanest mom on the block ... for what? For calling her on her lies? For expecting her to be where she says with whom she told me, obeying the very clearly stated driving restrictions quoted to us by very creepy man at DMV 4 times in the last 2 months?

Yeah. I know. I have huge expectations, don't I?

Honesty 101: Tell It Like It Is

I'm having a hard time understanding why this is such a hard principle to teach my children. Don't they want people to believe them? Do they really think we're that stupid? I've explained time and time again that, "If you're doing something wrong ... you're already in trouble, mister (or sister for that matter). Now, if you top that off with a big fat whopper of a lie, what exactly do you think is going to happen?" But somehow, they still end up going through these phases where they must truly think we are complete idiots.

Just tell it like it is. If you wet your pants in the middle of the night or broke Mom's favorite vase, just tell it like it is. If you lost your hat, forgot your homework or left work to run an errand with an 18 year old boy that we've told you not to associate with ... just TELL IT LIKE IT IS. Why make it so much worse by trying to pull the wool over our eyes? I promise I will always know if you brushed your teeth, washed your hands or went to a party you shouldn't have.

And now the task of coming up with our latest and greatest, logical but painful punishment? Where do I even start on this one? How do you handle honestly issues in your house? I'd love to get your advice., feel free to leave me your 2 cents ... or 20 bucks, your choice.

The Rule Book

I'm sure this picture was taken just a few weeks ago. I'm sure that this little girl is only about 5 years old and is sweet and funny and just wants to pal around with me all day long making crafts and painting pictures. Where have the last 10 years gone? How is it that now dear Hubby and I have to come up with some kind of rule system regarding how much time she is spending with senior boys and where she is and isn't allowed to go with her best friend who just got her driver's license? She can't hang out with boys who look like this! No way! Look at her. She's just too little. Too young. Too ... my little girl. You know it's funny, when my kids were younger and I was single, I sat them down one day and we had a long talk about how each child is different and none of them come with their own instruction manual. I wanted them to realize that just as I was figuring out all the in's and out's of whatever stage they were in at the moment ... that in almost that same moment they were moving on to a new, unexplored stage and I had to start the figuring all over again. Sometimes it feels like parenting is just that - writing the rule book over and over again. I just love the fact that Hubby and I are always on the same page, so much that I can actually phrase questions to him like, "How do we feel about this?" without us both cracking up.

For the moment, we're trying to be reasonable and responsible. I think that's fair to all the kids. What are the hardest things for you to make clear-cut rules about?

Jamaican Me Crazy!

Warning: Be advised, this recipe is sure to bring many corny jokes told in poor taste to your dining room.

After a long, hard day of being the meanest mom on the planet, it was nice to throw a few ingredients into the blender, slop that onto some meat and grill up dinner to feed the 'beasts'. The whole process was just quick and violent enough to soothe my frazzled nerves.

Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVE my kidlets, each of them, very much. I've just come to the conclusion that they all cycle through lovely, unpredictable phases where they are alternately angelic or demonic. I'm not sure if the shifts are based on cycles of the moon or weather, growth spurts or their pH balance. All I know is that just when I think everyone is in their happy place, myself included, one of them falls off the wagon. I do my best to keep my cool but I'm only human, and yesterday I lost it. It was short-lived and everyone is back onboard for the moment. So, for those days when you feel like cooking in a mad frenzy, here's a great recipe for you.

Jamaican Jerk Rub

1/2 C coarsely chopped onion

2 Tbs lime juice

1 tsp crushed red pepper

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp ground allspice

1/4 tsp curry powder

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1/8 tsp dried thyme, crushed

1/8 tsp ground ginger

2 cloves garlic, quartered

Put all ingredients in a blender. Cover and process until smooth. Spoon evenly onto chicken breasts, turkey breast tenderloin or pork chops. Rub in with your fingers. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Grill or broil meat.

This is one of the recipes from The Sonoma Diet book by Dr. Connie Guttersen, RD, PhD. So far, it's my favorite of all the library books I brought home. I even omitted the allspice and thyme since I didn't have them on hand and it still turned out great. Even the little monsters raved about it as they gobbled it up. Since all their halos were beaming, the slew of jokes that came with the recipe's name were at least bearable.

Perspective

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." ~ Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

I care. I care a whole awful lot. I care about my kids going to school and attending ALL their classes. I care about the kids checking in with us when they're at friend's houses. I care about them getting their homework done on time, and getting it turned in when it's finished. I care about them being honest and clean and respectful. I care a whole awful lot about all these things.

So, it will get better, right? This week was just a little more ... than I'd anticipated.

It's a good thing I love them all so much.