What Should I Do With My Life?

is the title of the book on the bookshelf that's glaring at me. I've had it since college, and kinda hoped that there would be some secret answer in there somewhere. A sentence that said, "Danielle, you should be a _____." Well, I guess it might as well have said that, because at that time in my life the book had relatively no insight.

I dug it out again recently, as I sullenly passed by dozens of pregnancy and baby books that Houston and I had developmentally outgrown. Lately, there have been situations in life that have me asking that question again: What should I do with my life?

I love this quote by Po Bronson:

"Your calling isn't something you inherently "know," some kind of destiny. Far from it. Almost all of the people I interviewed found their calling after great difficulty. They had made mistakes before getting it right. For instance, the catfish farmer used to be an investment banker, the truck driver had been an entertainment lawyer, a chef had been an academic, and the police officer was a Harvard MBA. Everyone discovered latent talents that weren't in their skill sets at age 25. Most of us don't get epiphanies. We only get a whisper -- a faint urge. That's it. That's the call. It's up to you to do the work of discovery, to connect it to an answer. Of course, there's never a single right answer. At some point, it feels right enough that you choose, and the energy formerly spent casting about is now devoted to making your choice fruitful."

I tried to imagine a life in which money had no bearing and health insurance was a moot point. What WOULD I do if I had true freedom? I wish I was the kind of mom who would say that I'd just stay home with my kid all day. Truth is, as much as I love my son, I don't think he or I would fare well with that scenario. I DO want to be home more with Houston, so that is a factor, but I definitely need my creative space and adult time. I think my dream life would be snuggling with Houston in the morning until about 9, dropping him at Meemaw's for lunch and naptime, and picking him back up again at around 2. From 10-2, I could go to Borders, have a coffee and a danish and just write. I wonder if it means I'm a fatty that two important elements of my job involve food? Food, flexibility, baby time, jammy time, creativity and maybe a little fame... too much to ask for? I don't think so. Well, maybe the jammy time.

So... the question begs to be asked: What should YOU do with your dream life? Leave comments below! :)

Need help deciding? Check out this link for ideas... it's now bookmarked on my comp.

Who's the Dunce Now?

Nothing makes you feel smarter than working with kids. I mean, it's awful that part of the joy in my life comes from using children to boost my own ego, but it's the truth. Especially since my knowledge of sex ed came from a children's book my mom handed to me when I was 7 that said babies come after mommy and daddy "do a special cuddle in bed." Talk about confusing, right?

So you can imagine my joy at hearing other kids' takes on baby making. Especially now that, 20 years later, I can proudly say that I know what "cuddle" reallllly means.

I was trying to review a math problem today with my kids that had to do with averages... the problem said, "If a new student joined the class how many brothers and sisters would you expect him to have? Explain." I heard a few random answers then got this little gem: "I would expect the new student would have 3 brothers and sisters because their mom probably took 3 pills and then, poof, 3 babies!"

Someone's going to be traumatized when they get their first headache...

If there's one thing to be smart about...

it's voting.

Now I admit, when I was 18 and stoked to vote for the first time, I picked all the females on the ballot and colored in their ovals painstakingly. Since then, I'm pleased to report that I've grown up a bit (although if worse comes to worse and I have absolutely no clue, I have to admit that I resort to the "girls go to college to get more knowledge, boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider" approach). I did some research and was ready to vote with confidence.

Without getting into a political rant, because let's face it - it's November 2nd and we're all a BIT tired of that, I can't overstate the importance of making time in the day to hit the polls. And it's even more important to me to show my son how vital it is to vote. I was fortunate enough to have the day off from school today, so Houston and I hit our voting ward early.

Houston, all 19 months of him, is not a novice to voting. He's been traipsed into the claustrophobic booth with me, and juggled from hip to hip for as many elections as there have been. Although he's definitely becoming astutely aware of how bizarre the whole process is. After being removed from his car seat prematurely, with chocolate munchkin still in hand, he reached up for my hand with a chocolate-glaze smile, always a good sport for whatever adventure awaits. We walked down the long wheelchair ramp into the musty smelling church, and before we had even made it inside were interrupted by a creaky, "Who arrre youuuu voting for, little boyyyyy?"

That's when Houston dropped my hand, and smile, and looked urgently at me saying, "Up, up?"

From car to booth, back to car, there was no shortage of little old lady eager to ask Houston who he had voted for. Which to me is a) inappropriate to ask, and b) aggressive interaction with a toddler. We eventually made it into the booth (okay, now I know I'm no chunk, but seriously - does anyone consider that people may need more than 1 square foot of room to vote comfortably?), and juggled Houston over to my right hip so I could write freely with my left hand. He looked anxious, so I said, "Okay Hew... time for momma to color." To which I heard from the booth on my right, "Well that's a fun way to look at it. She told him she was going to color."

Okay old lady, as I tell my 7-year-old students, MYOB. And also, who else was in HER booth? Kinky.

We made our way out of the booth to deposit our ballots, only to be faced with (you guessed it) another old lady. Houston knew the routine at this point though, and hid behind my legs, gently pushing me out the door.

As I strapped him back into his car seat, he looked at me with those green eyes and asked, "All done?" I said, "Yes. All done!" He said, "Okayyyy! More munka?" Poor kid.... all that work for another chocolate munchkin.

Love that kid.

"Who are youuuu voting for, sonnnny?"

....back!?

So about the past 7 months (and yes, I did, despite knowing better from my 2nd grade reprimands, count those months on my fingers)... yeah. About them. As Houston would say, "Ummmm..." It's a bad habit that I've passed on to my newly-verbal little man. I have no explanation, except to say, "life." And we'll leave it at that. Kay? Kay.

So I've been stressing out because November has been approaching and last year I participated in my first ever Nanowrimo (national novel writing month). It was great to get back into writing but also kind of a huge time commitment. At that time, Houston was just a little nugget I could stick in the corner somewhere and he's bat around at mobiles and springy toys precariously suctioned to a nearby wall. Now, he's older. And way more fun. And way more work. And not to mention, Justin's working way more hours. So like I said, I've been stressing. The thing is, I WANT to continue writing, but the problem is at this point in my life, I just don't have time. Hence, here I am! :) I'm back and ready to continue sharing my adventures in cooking, organizing, creating, and well... life.

Don't worry. I'm still a dunce. There will be lots to read about my cooking adventures. But a lot of things have changed in my life forcing me to make some pretty drastic alterations to my lifestyle. Please join me, again, my loyal friends, as I share some of these new and exciting elements of my life with YOU... dunce to dunce. No offense.

Oh HEY THERE fancy cooking :)

So perhaps my dunce-ities have come from cooking recipes that are too easy, because, not to toot my own horn, but when it comes to preparing meals with special sauces I'm a pretty damn good chef if I do say so myself. This past week I've made things with the titles "Pan Seared Green Peppercorn Filet," "Chicken and Asparagus in White Wine Sauce," and "Herb Crusted Pork Loin." Normally I would look at these titles and say, "Psh, yeah," and turn the page. BUT, I've found that going to the grocery store and stocking up on a few common ingredients has made my life so much easier! I picked up a couple of good cooking wines, beef and chicken stock, and a few fresh veggies, and my cooking world has been turned upside down! I suddenly have a myriad of recipes at my fingertips and can cook without a dreaded last minute trip to Hannaford! I feel like I am cooking gourmet meals - and they TASTE like gourmet meals (note: my definition of gourmet being something I would order in a restaurant). I've been reinspired and I'm leaving the baking to my sister from now on! :)

Make Love to Jamie Oliver, Anyone?

Sorry for the lapse in writing... there's no excuse for my adult onset ADHD, except well, my self-diagnosed adult ADHD.

Has anyone watched Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution? I credit him for refocusing my mind on healthy eating. How about that Huntington, WV (America's unhealthiest city)? I felt sorry for the mother whose "home cooking" was literally killing her family... I was impressed with those donuts she made though. But when they stacked all the fried food she made for her family in one week, I have to say, the donuts suddenly lost their appeal.

And the elementary school? Those little kids hit so close to home - especially now that I'm on "lunch duty" at my school. Our school seems to do a decent job of making healthy lunches, but like Jamie said, the amount of food that gets tossed is sickening - poor fruits and veggies. I feel like the old school lunch duty teacher I was afraid of in elementary school, but taking Jamie's cue, I have been sending some kids back to take "just one bite" of a veggie. The thing is, most kids will do it. Of course there are stubborn ones - but the majority of them just don't eat them because in their mind, that's okay. There's no mom in the lunch room making sure they eat - until nowww. Wuh wuhhhhh.

There are times when I just don't feel like fighting with Houston about eating vegetables. But I don't want him to think when he goes to school some day that he can eliminate them altogether from his diet. Guess whose little baby plate had a heaping lump of vegetables last night?

Thank you Jamie for refocusing my brain on my mission of building a healthy family. And PS, your adorable British accent doesn't hurt either.

Check out Jamie's site and sign his petition for healthy eating:
http://www.jamieoliver.com/campaigns/jamies-food-revolution

Birthday Fun!

Hard times at the post office?

Call me a domestic dunce - but get me out of my house and yes, I am one savvy shopper. Take the post office for example - one wouldn't think you'd have to barter with a mailman for postage. But believe you me, apparently it's a new thing.

You see I brought my cute little birthday invites to the post office to mail yesterday, and decided to double check with the mail man that they were indeed worthy of just one stamp. Let me lay out the scene in the form of a play:

Mailman (hastely and rudely): Oooh, no. That's gonna be 60 cents.

(And here's the thing that caught him totally off guard)

Me: Why?

Cue the stuttering, the sweating, and fumbling of papers.

Mailman: Oh...w-well-well. It's the rigidity.

Me: What's that mean?

Mailman: Well (taking the envelope from my hands...finally), let's see. Measures the envelope, practices sliding it through a makeshift "slot". Yup. It's just one stamp.

So there. Hmph. Rigidity my ass. What does that even mean? He didn't know... obvi. Moral of the story: the post office is desperate. Don't try to distract me with compliments of how cute my baby is. I may be a domestic dunce, but I am a cheapskate, frugal, savvy shopper. And I know my damn envelope dimensions. I'd call that a birthday party planning success so far, wouldn't you?

This you are not, you crazy mail swindler.

Brrr...

Well, I just came home with Hew from his first visit to Chuck E. Cheese - not sure if I created a monster by bringing him there so early in life, but my school was having a fundraiser there, and he really did have a blast! I learned that my son is the reason why they have buckles on rides... he LOVED riding the coin-operated cars and horses while standing. He also had his first slide trip, and loved that too - even though he had a tough time taking turns with his girlfriend :)

Anyway, we walked into the house and Hew literally shivered. I didn't realize how cold it really was for a good 20 minutes. I scoped out the thermostat and all it said was "Lo Batt" - apparently it runs on a battery? Well, when I looked at our other indoor/outdoor thermometer, I realized why Hew had the chills! It was 59 degrees in our house!

I replaced the battery (thank you very much), and the heat instantly kicked on. But seriously? I wouldn't have had heat otherwise? Pretty crazy to think that 2 AA batteries control the heat in my entire house.

Hew and I are currently huddling over the heat vents right now, warming our hands! Ugh!

Stay warm!

Birthday Madness!

Maybe I'm just a nerdy teacher - but I decided that Houston's first birthday will be an Eric Carle theme (aka: the Very Hungry Caterpillar). I just LOVE his bright colors, and Houston really likes the few board books we have illustrated by Eric.

So I've been scouring the web for some party ideas and came across these SUPER CUTE cupcakes! Check them out and let me know what you think! I'm thinking of foregoing a traditional cake and using these instead. They seem do-able, right? Right?

And when I make the cupcakes, I'll make sure I don't have the oven mitt on backwards like the last time I cooked, thus burning my entire palm... ugh.