Why People Don't Vote

It has nothing to do with the candidates and how well-suited they are or how much experience they lack. It has nothing to do with proximity to polls or access to early voting ballots. It has nothing to do with arranging the day just perfectly so a ballot can be cast without dragging all the children to the polls for a community civics lesson.

It's all about the phone calls.

It's only going to get worse. There are still about 88 hours left until the polls close on Tuesday. At the rate of 3 "Vote for MEEEEEEeeeeeeee" pre-recorded phone calls an hour, one should expect another 264 pleas for votes. Have you cleared your voicemail lately? Are YOU ready for the onslaught? And really... does the pre-recorded message sneakily calling you from seven states away really persuade you to do anything other than rip the phone from the wall and chuck it in the recycle bin? (Can you throw a phone away in a recycle bin? Or does it have corrosive evil components that must be hand delivered to your town's annual Caustic Substance Collection? [And does anyone REALLY know how the Caustic Substances are disposed of when the Go-Green crowd has gone home for the day? Are the contents itemized? Or are they just chucked in the big dumpster behind City Hall? {I should call someone about this. But it's 2:30a.m. and I'll be busy doing something tomorrow... I wonder if I can record my question and...}])

Schedules and Sanity

Schedules are required for maintaining a semblance of sanity. At least in OUR household they are. I just finished our tentative daily schedule for the coming school year. It always takes a month to work out the kinks, but it should serve quite well for the time being. Preschool is about to start up for the year, religion and sacrament prep classes, too. Oh, and let's not forget Scouts. And when will the baby nap?

All I can say is that I love Excel and I love that I can color code my charts. It makes the nerd in me giddy.

Diaper Covers and Little Girls

Miss M is kiddo #4 - we've been around the block a few times with dirty diapers and have come to understand that diaper covers are non-negotiable with babies. Especially babies who like the sound of velcro in the morning. These days, diaper covers are tough to find. A brilliant friend of mine suggested using underwear a size or two larger than a baby would wear and it's worked great.

However...

Kid #4 has had the privilege of watching WB potty train. And what do we all do for newly trained kids? Buy them special undies, of course! WB now sports super cool Spiderman boxer briefs.

Guess who LOVES Spiderman?

Miss M has been carrying on for DAYS about "Man." She loves Man. She watches Man cartoons. She envies her brother's super cool undies. And today... today she tried to dress her Baby in Man undies, as well as herself. The giggling "no" I gave her was met with a shrieking fit.

Spiderman! My arch enemy? Could it be?

Another Project Done

After 3 months, I have finally finished staining my shelves for the kitchen. I can prove it, too!

Ta da!!!

The Schedule

After talking about it, I figured I should post a few pictures of the vertical picture schedule I made for Wonder Boy. It's similar to the one used in his preschool (lol, he laments that his home schedule is not blue like his school schedule).

There are about 12 boxes with velcro tabs on them. Each of the picture cards also has velcro so that they can be attached and arranged any way we need them. Oh - I laminated all of this for durability.

There is nothing funnier than to hear WB yell, "I doe deh ma dedoe," (I go check my schedule.) when we say it's time for the next thing. And yes, he lives for snack.

Farewell to Cable

Cable viewing is having its last hoorah this afternoon. We're pulling the plug. Well, maybe not entirely pulling the plug - we still have dvd's and tapes. The cable channels, however, are history. We've been on the fence for months and the letter we received from the cable company was enough to help us decide to pick a greener pasture for the family. We've had a deal for basic cable for two years and now they'd like to bring us up to the same payment level as everyone who didn't know how to ask for More Basic Than Basic cable service... and to that end they were going to more than double the rate we pay.

I love Shark Week on Discovery, but not that much.

In the Kitchen - Sweet & Sour Meatballs

Oh, man. This turned out really good. My mom used to make sweet and sour meatballs as an appetizer. I rarely make them because I never have time to do the meatballs and sauce from scratch... so I tweaked it a bit and came up with a great, complete meal. It's got a protein, a starch, a veggie and a fruit!

Premade meatballs (I don't measure exactly, but about 6 per person - today I used Schwan's)
1/4c vinegar
1 8oz can crushed pineapple (do NOT drain!)
1/2c brown sugar
1Tbsp ketchup
1Tbsp cornstarch & 1tsp salt mixed with 1/2c water
broccoli
rice

Get your favorite rice cooking (I like jasmine basmati). Get your broccoli ready to steam/cook. Thaw the meatballs in the microwave and get the sauce going.

Sauce: In a large skillet, put the vinegar, pineapple, brown sugar, ketchup and cornstarch/salt/water mixture. Bring it to a boil (stir constantly) and then simmer for 5 minutes. Once your meatballs are thawed and the sauce is thickened, put the meatballs in the sauce and stir to coat. Put a lid on and let it gently simmer while you finish the broccoli and rice.

My family doesn't like everything all mixed together, so I serve a bed of rice, a side of broccoli and a side of meatballs to everyone. For myself, I make the bed of rice and put the veggies and meatballs right on top. It was great! And for once I didn't feel guilty about forgetting fruit or veggies.