tuesday, feels like monday
spent memorial day half at work, half over at the parents, who obligingly ordered kick ass memphis barbecue from red hot and blue, which we ate happily out of styrofoam boxes while talking about how weird we are, having our addams family memorial day, inside, away from the heat, eating ribs that somebody else sweated over!
it was great.
mama is feeling better, she is going to try and go to work today and i hope she does. ]
the lentil salad is killer! took it yesterday, taking it again today. i am about to pack my lunch, clean up after our little breakfast, and then close the kitchen down. then i will get my mop ready, then, spend any time i have left hanging out with my boy, whatever he wants to do.
notes regarding the organization chart:
sunday, monday, wednesday, and friday nights MUST involve a shower, no matter how tired i am. too hot and sweaty to go without one now, and too rushed on mondays and tuesdays if i do it in the morning.
ditto to packing my bento. i need to do this at night, there is no reason not to, what i am packing is going to be reheated or eaten at room temp anyway.
ditto to putting together vincent’s bag for geneva’s on which ever night is the eve of his geneva day.
this night before routine is well known, i know this, to millions of mothers before me. gimme a break. i am just seeing the light.
staying at home on saturday is nice
i am relaxing with vinny, loving that we are home, even though i wish my mom felt better. when i picked him up i got to hang out with geneva for a good hour, talking. it was really nice.
in a minute i am going to make a new recipe for dinner, then sit back down with my boy and enjoy my short work day with no supervision and no drive to plano.
dinner:
Spicy Indian Lentil Salad
1 cup lentils
1 cup brown rice
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground cinnamon
6 cardamom pods
3 star anise
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup sunflower oil
1 tsp lemon juice
8 oz broccoli florets
2 carrots, cut into matchsticks
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 red pepper, finely chopped
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp ground coriander
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen peas, thawed
Mint and yogurt dressing
1 cup plain yogurt
1 tbs lemon juice
1 tbs finely chopped fresh mint
1 tsp cumin seeds
1. Pour three cups of water with the rice, lentils, turmeric, cinnamon, cardamom, star anise and bay leaves in a pan. Stir to combine and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer gently for 50-60 minutes, or until the liquid is absorbed. Remove the whole spices and discard. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl. Whixk two tbs of the oil with the lemon juice and fork through the rice mixture.
2. Boil, steam or microwave the broccoli and carrots until tender. Drain and refresh in cold water.
3. Heat the remaining oil in a large pan and add the onion, garlic, and red pepper. Stir fry for 2-3 minutes, then add the garam masala and coriander, and stir fry for another 1-2 minutes. Add the vegetables and toss to coat in the spice mixture. Add to the rice mixture and fork through to combine. Cover and refrigerate.
4. To make the dressing, mix the yogurt, lemon juice, mint and cumin seeds together. Season with salt and pepper. Serve the dressing on the side.
I am kind of a slave to the big Indian grocery store in Richardson and have all of these spices, except maybe the cardamom pods, I may just have cardamom ground, but will improvise. Also, I will leave out the bay leaf cause I just don’t like it, and I will use cilantro instead of mint because I refuse to pay three bucks for mint, and I haven’t been to the Asian grocery store lately where they sell it for a buck a bunch LIKE THE WEED THAT IT IS.
will report back with the results.
just a few thoughts
my weekly schedule is all fucked up. it is based on a very different work schedule than i have now. so i have to start changing it.
WORK SCHEDULE:
MONDAY 1:00-9:00-leave to drop off vin at 12:00
TUESDAY 1:00-9:00-leave to drop off vin at 12:00
THURSDAY 12:00-9:00-leave to go to work at 11:30
SATURDAY 8:00-1:00-leave to go to work at 7:30-then supervision from 1:00-2:00-go to pick up vin in plano.
also, have to figure out when i can see my private pay client with his new summer job. i think i will tell his mom it still has to be on the weekends, somehow, maybe after he gets off. i don’t want to regularly sacrifice a weeknight if i don’t absolutely have to.
things that need to be done:
HOUSEWORK: this needs to be broken back down into one hour per day, preferably split in half between josh and me. i will do an extra hour if i need to. i do have one more day at home than josh.
PROJECTS: the garage needs to be cleaned out and rearranged to make the laundry room neater.
the living room is mine. if i stay home tomorrow i am starting this project.
the back patio needs to be cleaned for the summer. ditto the front porch.
biggest project…painting the playroom and the doors. i will do all of the prep, and then
josh can help me roll the paint. i will do the doors myself this friday night after prepping them
during the day.
friday morning after josh goes to work, i will also clean and caulk the bathtub.
the two “junk drawers” in the kitchen have grown into monsters, must be purged.
the plan this week was to stay home wednesday, thursday and friday to do poop potty training once and for all. i don’t think this is going to work, since mom is in the hospital and i am not sure if she is going to be home and when, and when she does get home, we will definitely be heading up there to help her. i guess we can try next week. while we were home, we were going to get these projects done. so, if it has to be next week, that will be how it is. i can still plan what needs to be done, if not when.
now, i have to get ready for work.
proud of myself!
i just did, in fact, sign up for a membership at massage envy. it is 49 bucks a month, autodraft, for a one hour massage per month. i can roll them over, i can freeze it if i need to, i can get additional massages at 39 bucks an hour. i will be trying out a girl named germaine on sunday who supposedly can do cranio sacral work. that one will be 39 bucks cause it is my first time.
i spend that amount of money on fast food every month. as an even trade, i will promise myself today, right now, that i will NO LONGER buy any fast food, lunches, or coffees out of the debit card. i will ONLY use my allowance (which is what we are supposed to do anyway) and therefore, the massage won’t cost anything. at. all.
self care. yes. next up…a shower head with massage settings. and not JUST for naughty reasons, mind you. haha.
back to the salt mines
yesterday was wonderful, so nice. the surprise was a facial and a massage for my sis and me, mama outdid herself as usual. it was blissful. especially the facial. the massage was painful, but productive. i am about to take a hot shower and that should help the soreness, but it was worth it. i am going to investigate this place up the street called massage envy, they have some kind of monthly membership plan and i am going to make the investment if it is reasonable. selfish time.
also, tonight, i am going to put the schedule that i have been working on here. then i can work out the kinks as i go.
today is my long, hectic day. i am going to shower now and get focused, and i am going to leave early enough to get those diapies in the mail for that hipmama.
rainy awesome wednesday
awesome because i love rain and i love not having to go to work today. and awesome cause mr. finicky woke up with a good appetite, and awsome because my sis and niece are still here, and we are going to hang out at the parent’s house today, and potentially awesome because mama told me to be there by about 11:30, and i am hoping that we are going to do something fun together.
so it is almost 10, we have roughly an hour before we have to go, and i think i am going to be content with cleaning off the counters and the kitchen table, getting dressed in some serious day off clothes. and hitting the road.
remembering my knitting and the camera.
secretly even hoping for a nap! greedy bitch that i am.
monday
i had a pretty good day today, why oh why do i fight so hard to take care of myself? why is it such a chore? one good thing i did…i deleted my account on the old mama board, it was HARD, but very necessary. i am too tired to write about that tonight.
tomorrow, i must catch up at work to unburden and unstress my mind, and be able to have a really fun day on wednesday with nicole and ariel.
off to do a bit of yoga and then shower. i will do both. i will.
and in other news
vincent and i both have strep throat, which is the most painful thing i have experienced in a very, very long time. OUCH. agony. glad vincent didn’t have this sore throat…if he had, i can’t imagine he would have held it together. anyway, i dragged my ass to the care now on friday morning and my test was positive, josh and vin went saturday while i dragged my ass to work, josh’s was negative but vin’s was positive. we got shots to speed the effects of the penicillin. a shout out to josh for holding vincent through his first throat culture and a big huge shot…
also, i have decided to leave the online community that i have been a very active part of for many years. there are a couple of mamas there with very obvious (if you are me) personality disorders and they have wrapped themselves up in a rather toxic game of projective identification with me. it is gross, and as in any classic projective identification, nothing i say can be “heard”, which is exponentially harder seeing as nobody “hears” me, they just read my words and project-a-go-go all over the place. it has to end. so, i am formulating a farewell that isn’t too dramatic-sounding and i will post it here for posterity. HA!
off to knit while my hair dries.
happy mother’s day to me, to you, to us
happy mother’s day to me! and to all of us. soon i will get dressed ( i just had a lovely and leisurely shower, i even shaved!) and go to my mama’s house, where my sister is, and my niece…oh yeah, and my dad and my husband, and i will relax a bit, then cook the big juicy steaks that my sis bought. i love to cook, and my family trusts only me with that task when it involves any sort of red meat! i am drooling just thinking about it. i also plan to go over to whole foods and get a chair massage at some point, it would be rad if i could talk my sis into going with me.
being a mama is the most fulfilling and frightening and empowering and humbling thing i have ever tried to do. my son is the epicenter of my world and as a result my epicenter changes and grows every day. i love this life so much that every hardship is worth it when i look at his face.
