What's The Purpose of It?

So, I'm sure some of you have noticed that I have fallen off of the face of the planet again. Sorry, I have had.... well, a busy few months. First, my Grandmother died from cancer. She found out about it in Feb and passed away at the end of May. This was hard and frankly difficult to process. Honestly, I try not to think of it, or the fact that my daughter never had the chance to meet her and never will.

 So, when I look at my life now, I want to make it count. But I find myself in a situation where no matter what I do, the things that I do "don't count". The person they are done for only notices the things this person wants to notice; and anything that is contrary to their point of view of what is done to/for them angers them to no end. This person also has no regard for the people around him/her. ( I'm being purposely vague, this applies to a couple of people in my life) They go around in life treating others like crap and never once thing twice about it; until at least they receive the reciprocal treatment and they don't like it. What I want to know is, why? What purpose is there to treating others like the piece of gum you stepped on in a parking lot? Does it really make you feel better to make everyone around you feel like a big, steamy pile of crap? I'm truly curious, since I have a personality that is driven to be helpful when I can. Yes, I realize this means that I am more susceptible to being used than the next girl. But it brings me joy to be as helpful as I possibly can. So when I help someone who is such a lost cause, who can't even appreciate in the smallest iota a kindness done for them, it hurts me deeply. Don't get me wrong, I don't do it for the the appreciation. If the only thing was that they didn't say thank you, I'd move on and not care. The part that kills me is being told that I'm lazy, and I don't care. This is the truly monstrous part. I do care, and I work hard to show it.

End rant. I find this blog to be a great place to air out some of my feelings when I struggle to put them in audible words. If no one ever reads this, I honestly wouldn't care. It is like therapy, but infinitely more affordable.

-minionmommy

Reasons Why I Love My Kitchen Aid Mixer

I love my Kitchen Aide. A lot. So much so that I decided I should share with you all some of the reasons why I love it so much.


First of all, it's an awesome stand mixer for making your cookies, cakes and such. It's powerful, so you don't have to worry about it burning out on you because you had a particularly thick dough in there. Even if this were the only thing it was good for it's quite worth it, in my humble baker's opinion. (I've burnt out a few hand mixers in my life = no bueno )

Second of all, it mixes bread doughs so well. I pretty much never have a problem making bread with it. It kneads it while it's mixing the ingredients, so you don't have to mess up your dough by over kneading it by hand. (moment of silence for all the over worked breads I have made before my Kitchen Aide.)

Third, and surprisingly the newest thing I found out about my Kitchen Aide mixer, is that you can shred chicken in it. You just cook the chicken however you prefer and then put it in the bowl while it is still hot and turn it on for 30 seconds to a minute and voila you have perfectly shredded chicken without the tired arms that that usually entails!

-MinionMommy

Transitioning from Stay at Home Mom to Working Mom

Well, I finally found a job that would accommodate the hubs and I both working and child care for the Minion. Unfortunately, the child care is my job and I'm in different rooms than my daughter; which as you can imagine for a child that has rarely had to be separated from me it is the pits. The first day was an unmitigated disaster. She cried. I cried. It was unpleasant. Today was the second day, and honestly it wasn't as bad as the first. She still doesn't appreciate  me not being with her 24/7 but she did play with the other kids and participate a little.

To be honest, I was surprised at how hard it was for me to just be in the next room with her screaming. I honestly thought I'd be fine since I was there too and could see her. NOPE! I bawled like a baby as well, as my "baby". Nothing more embarrassing than trying to be professional while crying uncontrollably. Thankful, that she seems to be getting used to being there, though it may be a long while before she's looking forward to it.

- MinionMommy

Spring.... I love Spring!

Right about now, I'm remembering that this time last year, I was living in Arizona and it was already hot. Not t-shirt hot, I'm talking about "do I really have to go outside for any reason because I may melt" hot. And this is just spring time, not middle of summer when it's even more sweltering outside and your A/C poops out because it's running 24/7! So, now that I'm back on the coast, I'm feeling quite thankful that our hot days during spring are only about 70 degrees outside with a light breeze and that most mornings it's still cold enough to need a sweater. I sort of missed that. Another thing I missed: going outside and enjoying the weather; instead of making a mad dash to wherever the A/C was on. You never notice how important these little things are to you until you suddenly go without, and even then you might not realize you missed them until you get them back.

In other news, I (and the hubby) have been helping my parents redo the backyard. So far it has been a HUGE project, but we are finally seeing some improvement. So now there's a space enjoyable enough to enjoy the weather. :) We probably have a few more weekends of work to go, but I'd say it's coming along nicely. Here are some before and after pictures.

        

 As you can see, it's been a long process that started a few years ago. But it is finally coming together and soon we'll be finished. Some grass, some cement, and some other finishing touches and it will be the perfect backyard to enjoy some peace and quiet.

-MinionMommy

P.S. Thanks to all of my friends who have come and helped at some point in this project. You have no idea how much it is appreciated.

Stomach Bugs Suck

Nothing worse than when your child gets sick. But what's worse than that is when they get the stomach bug and you can't really do anything for them to make them feel better other than offer crackers and pedialyte or anything else that might entice them to eat or drink without puking their little hearts out. I'm definitely glad we found the pedialyte popsicles. The minion will eat that slightly more often than she will drink the stuff. So this last week we've been doing lots of laundry.... so much laundry. I've decided I can handle diarrhea til the cows come home blue in the face all day everyday, instead of puking. I'm a sympathy puker. Last time she was sick and we were at Wal Mart not realizing she was sick in the first place and she threw up all over me and I, being the sympathy puker that I am only managed to hold it in for like 2 minutes before puking right next to her. SO EMBARRASSING! I just couldn't help it. *sigh* Thankfully, a nice older woman came over and helped me clean up while the hubs walked off so he wouldn't puke and bought us some clean clothes. Anyways, hope you all are having a healthier April than we are currently having.

-MinionMommy

Potty Training Wars..... Pt. 1

So this week we decided to buy the Minion pull ups and try to potty train, since she's just a bit too tall for regular diapers to fit the way they should. I was feeling optimistic since we've been lazy training her for months i.e. having her sit on her potty every once in a while and she'd go every once in a while. Now she despises sitting on the little potty and wants to sit on the actual toilet and play with the toilet paper. She's peed, but won't go number two on the toilet. Twice now I've had her on the toilet to no avail and not 5 minutes later she's filled her pull up. *sigh*  Guess I should just keep taking her in there regularly enough and eventually she should figure it out, right????? *crosses fingers* On the bright side this kid loooooves to flush the toilet. Loves it. To the point of throwing a fit if I flush it for her. She cracks me up. For anyone that's wondering the nighttime pull ups are super absorbent, possibly more so than diapers are.

Which reminds me, she's sleeping in her own little bed 6 out of 7 nights of the week, of her own free will. What?! I'm pretty excited about having my side of the bed to myself again. It's been nearly two weeks of nearly undisturbed sleep!

-MinionMommy

p.s. I'm taking any pointers I can get as far as potty training goes.

The Minion Learned How To Pedal!

For the Minion's birthday this year, my parents bought her a tricycle. A cute and adorable little Red Radio Flyer trike like this one. She just loves it. Problem is she had no idea how to pedal it, until today.

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We came back home from playing at the park and she decided she wanted to ride around on it. But instead of her getting it to move once she actually started pedaling! It was awesome. So we kept making a big deal about it and she was getting so excited and kept going. Now we just have to work on teaching her how to steer, because this kid is an accident on wheels now! :)

Anyway, for anyone looking at tricycles this one was pretty decently priced and well-built, the Minion has knocked it over a few times but nothing has come loose or anything. It's also a great size for my taller than the average two year old.

-MinionMommy