Morning already....again??

Happy Hump Day!!!

Last night #5 had a rough night sleeping , so of course that plays into how much sleep I do or, in this case, DO NOT get since I breastfeed. Needless to say I was not up for getting out of bed at 0600 with the alarm, 0650  just sounded SO much better.
I am beginning to think that mornings are coming so much faster now then what they did, say even a week ago.
At one time I used to look forward to the 0600 alarm, to be able to get up , drink some coffee and most important get my work out completed before the kids get up at 0700. Now I curse the person who invented alarms, think that exercising is becoming VERY overrated, and that if the kids can sleep well then so can I. :)

Maybe tomorrow I will have a different out look , but today I say hey GIVE ME SLEEP or GIVE ME SLEEP.

Blessing of a Joe

Ever have one of those days where no matter how hard you try there just never seems to be a) enough time in the day and b) enough of YOU to go around? And no matter how hard you try you are not able to make enough of either a or b to make it all work out. So, in the end you are left standing there in the middle of "it all" scratching your head and thinking to yourself " did I accomplish anything and if so what?"
Well today was that day for me, and to be honest I seem to be having "those" days more and more often, especially since G.I. Joe came home from deployment.

See no military wife likes to admit that when her husband is deployed and it is just her and ?# of kids and maybe a dog or 2 or even a cat or heck why not a fish to balance it all out, that life is some how just a little, if not A LOT, less stressful for her , because to do so would make her seem like one of "THOSE" wives.
There is not that nagging feeling of having to make dinner every night, and if you do make it it needs to be by a certain time. That to feed yourself and the kiddos cereal for dinner is fine, cause at least they are not starving and by some peoples standards cereal is a very nutritional meal any time of day ( yes, i have those standards ) .
Or the unsaid rule of the house needing to be picked up, so that no one ( above 4 ft tall) will trip and fall over the toys and perhaps injury themselves in some odd way. Because you nothing in your day is more pressing than to stand over your children as they play with the toys and pick them up as soon as they move on to something more interesting. And lets not forget about the laundry, no laundry must be done in a timely fashion, because heaven forbid that someone in the house just might have to wear the same pair of socks or (Gasp) underwear the next day.
But, on the other hand no military wife likes to admit that even though these things might drive her crazy pretty much every day of the week and that there are some days that are harder than others that in the end she is just happy knowing that she is one of the lucky wives that has the insane pleasure of cooking dinner ( even if it is cereal and left overs) , keeping a semi-clean house and doing a quick load of laundry at 9p for her G.I Joe. Since there are more than a few wives out there that are not blessed with this day to day task.

So when all is said and done and your tired and really just want to serve cereal for dinner, leave the toys where they lay cause lord knows the toys will just be in the same place again tomorrow, and pick the least of the stinky socks out of the basket, remember to count your blessing and hold your Joe tight tonight because some where out there is a military wife who is not so lucky.

0200 Epiphany

I love to cook, but not as much as I LOVE to BAKE. I have not always loved to do either, and I did not discover my love for either till after I had kiddo #4, almost 5 yrs ago. That is when I decided I wanted to stop working and be a stay at home mom and home school kiddo #3 ( which is a another story for another day ) and when I met my wonderful tree hugging, hippie channeling, BFF, Andrea G., who showed me that being in the kitchen does not have to be stressful and a pain in my back side, that meals did not always have to come from a box or a drive through or heck even take out and that I could indeed make a great meal for my family using simple , well not always simple, ingredients and TONS of love. And even if it did not turn out exactly "perfect" that in the end it was made with love .
Now fast forward 5 yrs, almost, and I am now homeschooling #3 and #4 with #5 under a year who I  nurse and cloth diaper ( just to make my life more interesting, don't you know) and I am back to feeling like there is just no time for my inner "master" baker and Chef Ramsey. Which I have to say is a very sad thing, not only for me and my family, but for my pocket book too.
It amazes me how women with more than one child find time to make or bake anything that does not come from a box or a teen age boy driving his moms car trying to save money for his own car???????
Which leads me to my 0200 Epiphany , why does it have to be a BIG meal or cake or what ever? Can't I simply go into the kitchen and make something, anything at all no matter the size , for myself or family from "scratch", with out a big, messy, and often lengthy production???

Well today I have chosen to do just that, to start small or "go home" ( I know so not how the saying goes) .. this morning I made my take on a Vietnamese coffee.
( Pix to come)
I made a 10oz cup of coffee using my Keurig and Seattle's Best Coffee #2 ( with a reusable basket)
since I forgot to make and refrigerate the coffee last night , I had to place the cup in the refrigerator this morning for about an hour before I could actually make my coffee
Once the coffee was cold I added Fat Fee Half and Half to "color" ( or should it be taste HMMM)
Then I added 3 TBS of Fat Free Sweetened Condensed Milk ( probably could have added more, but I am trying to take control of my "sweet tooth")
Finally, since I am more of an iced coffee person, I added my coffee ice cubes , which I make by placing any left over coffee into ice trays and freezing just like I was making regular water ice cubes. I find by using coffee ice cubes I don't get the watered down coffee taste when I make my iced coffee.
And I must say it was the BEST cup/glass of coffee I have had in a long time and I got a small sense of satisfaction out of knowing that I actually "made" it, not just poured a creamer into a steaming mug of joe.


Now to see what tomorrow brings

Sweets and Me

I am an emotional eater, always have been and will more than likely always will be. I don't think I have ever met a cookie I did not like, well maybe one , but no need to say which :), or a cake, pie, ice cream or any other kind of sweet. Some days this is a blessing and other times it can be a BIG PAIN!!!
I think I keep the chocolate companies in business and my loving and non sweet tooth husband, G.I Joe, scratching his head wondering why .
But, that is one of the many sides of me he adores even after almost 14 yrs.