Week in Review 1/21/10

Lots and lots of hours at JetBlue training to be a trainer, ha ha. I will be a teacher's assistant for 5 whole days, which required 5 whole days of training. Interesting. It's refreshing to be doing something different though. I can't wait to meet our class tomorrow, of course this means more long ... LONG nights and less time with the fam. At least my paycheck will show a substantial increase. It will be nice to have a little breathing room for a change.

I was able to actually finish a book this week too, The Shape of Mercy by Susan Meissner. It was for book club, which I've never attended and missed this month too. (I'm working on it, at least I read the book this time) I got to see awesome cloud formations as a storm rolled in on Monday, witness a good deed as I drove in to work, got a surprise package from Whimsy Love and made delicious Pork Medallions with Raspberry-Chipotle Sauce. (Recipe to be posted later)

Now, I'm off to bed ... and even before midnight. Yay me!

Loving Shape Collage!

Alright, I admittedly spent too much time in front of the computer today, but I needed a creative diversion before heading back to JetBlue for another 8 hour session of training. Blech. Now, I'm running on very little energy and even less sleep so my new toy offered the most fun with the least effort.

These were all created from the same batch of 200-ish photos of my oldest girly-girl. Processing time wasn't too bad, except for the last one with the background. I'm still deciding if I like the idea of a background or not, there's something about it on a clean white area that I just love. Anyway, I've discovered that you can preview as many times as you want and it will rearrange the photo spacing each time, which is nice. Oh! And plan to walk away from your computer while it's creating. This program definitely takes a lot of juice to run, so hands off is better or everything will slow waaaayy down.

New Toy, New Toy! I Have a New Toy!

Photojojo absolutely rocks! I love getting their newsletter with fun how-to projects and photo tips. They are always a treat and today was no exception. Today they introduced me to Shape Collage, a magically fantastical program that will takeyour own personal collection of photos and arrange them into a glorious collage in the shape of your choosing. I've only had limited time to play in it this afternoon, but it is soooo much fun! Make a custom image for your sweetheart, parents, grandparents, sister, boss, etc.

The first image I sampled was a double heart I found online. The pictures aren't the best, I just grabbed the first album I saw ... Izzy, and named it Puppy Love. (oh the cheese factor!) I love the shape though and will definitely make another with a better grouping of photos. This one only took about a minute to create and has 125 photos in it. Not bad.Then I did one with a red velvet background just to see how the program would output it. Yuck, but this was my bad. The fabric photo is too detailed, too close up. It overpowers the photos and makes them look too flat. A field of grass way off in the distance or a nice patch of blue sky would've looked much better. This one took about ten minutes to create.The last test for today was a doozy. I'll be the first to admit that under some circumstances I just love to push the limits as far as I can, so I through over 600 images into this one from different family activities over the last 3 years. I wanted to see how the program handled a really detailed, full 'shape' and had a great brainstorm of making a photo family tree. This beauty took a little over an hour to create ... and I'm wishing I'd bought the upgrade so I could edit it and push a few things around in PhotoShop ... maybe after payday. It's also the only way to get rid of the watermark.Next time around I want to try some custom text ... oh, the possibilities. Go download it yourself and have a blast! So many ideas brewing ...

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.