Anywhoo, yesterday I defrosted three packages of chicken legs with the intention of making this. Obviously, based on that sentence I didn’t do it. So I made it today. Let me preface, we’re not a strict paleo-eating household, but I can get behind the diet in theory. I <3 bread. And butter. And heavy whipping cream in my coffee. So full-on paleo is not going to happen.

So I set this up around 3 PM. I changed the recipe a bit. I left out the tomato paste. I used the greens from some leeks I chopped months ago and froze (and not enough). I used more chicken stock. The recipe in the iPad app did not call for white wine like the one on the webpage does.I used a little more fish sauce than it called for. I layered my chicken legs and turned on the crockpot and walked out the door.

But wait. We walked in the door around 6:45 and it smelled delicious. At seven I pulled the lid and it smelled better. I drained & removed the chicken to a container (less clean up as I knew I’d have leftovers) and put the leeks and broth and garlic into a pan and took my immersion blender to it. I boiled it a little more to thicken it a touch. I gave each of my kids two chicken legs, about 1/4 cup of the gravy and tossed a bowl of strawberries on the table. Dinner was devoured.

My oldest is making dessert smoothies now and looking for spinach to toss in there with it. I <3 my kids.

Malachai is verbal now (meaning we still have days we cannot understand him but they are few and far between and his teacher and classmates have no problem with him and he is no longer frustrated because he can communicate now), and is still in OT and takes Taekwondo (last year it was acro at my daughters dance studio – he was awesome! This is in lieu of PT) but has really come so far. He learned how to tie his shoes this year!

So our pediatrician (normal ped, not a specialized ped) throws out “like Tourette’s” yesterday. Wow. Really? Don’t just throw things like that out there and then gloss over it and move onto the next thing. Which is exactly what he did. So I put it to the back of my mind. Where it percolated. I ignored it. I did. I kept busy.

But then a siren named Google called to me. So I did it. I googled that shit.

And proceeded to GO, did not collect 200$ and freaked out. Because the first sign/symptom is excessive blinking. That I brought up to our ped a year ago. A year ago. I could have been on top of this shit for a year. Not now that it’s gotten to excessive that other people who aren’t his mother are noticing. I am not am alarmist. I don’t go to the doctor for every paper cut and bruise. In fact, I avoid the doctor like the plague,  because if I don’t already have it I don’t want to get it in the waiting room.

We immediately called around and now have to wait all summer to even start figuring this out. We got an appointment with a pediatric orthopedist in late June (for his in-toeing and femurs, which we were told last July are torsioned but only told they don’t do anything until age 14 or older and to get him better shoes from the running store. Which we did, which haven’t helped) and got an appointment with a new neurologist at the end of August.

Yes. The ass-end of August. So I have three more months (four, really) in which to freak out and imagine the worst things possible. Google can kiss my read end, I’m breaking up with it.

Upfront – I totally get a kick back if you register from this link:
http://emeals.com/amember/go.php?r=292582&i=l0

I do not get a kick back if you register from this link: http://emeals.com

So while this isn’t a sponsored post, I do get a kick back if you sign up using my link. But I use their menus more often than I don’t. So there you go.

That out of the way, I love this site! Yah, I can meal plan my damn self for free. Except it costs me more than I pay in time, so for weeks I haven’t planned or days I don’t want what I’ve planned, it’s fab!

I subscribe to the Whole Foods plan, but you can obviously shop anywhere. I just like the meals better on that one. They try to tie the plans into that weeks sales too, if you pick a store (like Publix, or Whole Foods, or WalMart or Aldi, theres more too!). I also get the Clean Eating plan, which doesn’t make my kids happy, but I enjoy it, so it gives me lunch ideas. It also has a complete break down of how much your shopping trip should cost you. It averages about 150$ a trip, but I shop every other week and don’t shop strictly to this menu and spend about 400 – 500$ a trip for seven or eight people.

You can get sample plans here: http://emeals.com/meal-plans

I got this as a Groupon a few months ago, so I got a year really cheap. They recently sent out an email to extend my subscription by a year at half off. Now, I’ve been printing out my PDFs (and saving them too of course) and sticking them in a folder in my kitchen, so by the time my year is up I’ll have 52 solid plans. I didn’t need another year. What I did do was email and ask if I could get the same renewal rate but a concurrent subscription to another menu and they hooked me up within an hour. So now I get the clean eating menu as well. There is also a “freebie” every week – this week it’s a Cinco de Mayo plan. They had one for St. Patricks too (IIRC it was a crock pot recipe and sides), and one week it was a recipe for cake pops, and another it was a lemon cake. You just have to remember to log in to get the freebie – but they email the PDF to you every week so you don’t have to remember to log in to get your menu.

These are super easy things my 11 y/o can make too – easy to follow directions, includes a side. It’s perfect for us. They have a Mother’s Day menu this week that I’m going to give him so I don’t see the same toast and yogurt mix I usually get (Not that I am knocking toast and yogurt, and I love love love he brings me breakfast in bed multiple times a year, but yogurt is hard for me to face at 7 in the morning)

Like I said, I do get a kick back if you sign up – and if that makes you uncomfortable and you still want to sign up, feel free to go directly to http://emeals.com – but I bet you can put together a pretty comprehensive set of recipes just from the free samples!

As I said, I was using another service (also a Groupon steal!) but I really prefer this one. Do we eat all the recipes? Nope. But after three weeks (that’s 21 plans!) I had a pretty good plan of attack and can put together two weeks at a time easily. Now that I’ve had it for a few months it’s even easier.

There are free sites to do this too, and I use Paprika as a recipe manager (that is a whole other post! Maybe later!) and can do it through that, but sometimes I just don’t have time or get overwhelmed looking through so many recipes. This just limits my options and makes life way easier for me.

“The Torah reminds us 36 times that we must welcome and be kind to the stranger because we were strangers in the land of Egypt,” he said. “We have a cultural memory, a cultural and religious understanding of what it means to be marginal.”

Moving toward acceptance of different manifestations of gender, he said, isn’t limited to transgender people. “One of the myths that we’re taught is that gender is a fixed thing, and I don’t think it works that way. … It’s much more complicated than that.”

He cites men who want to stay home with their children, or women who want to take the position of breadwinner in the family as examples of people who don’t fit into traditional gender roles — and of whom he believes the Jewish community could be more accepting and supportive.

“Judaism teaches me to look at every single person as made in the image of God, even if that person’s experience is new or unfamiliar to me,” he said. “That’s a large part of what should teach us to be more welcoming to transgender people and many other people as well.”

I can’t tell you how much I love this. I am still at odds with my local group of Jews – I have a fundamental disagreements with the fundamentals – but overall, of all the religions I’ve studied, Judaism is one of my favourites. This just underlines that for me. I mean, his gender shouldn’t matter anyway, but with all the hate-mongering in the world, especially the hate-mongering in the religious communities, this makes me happy to read.

Hi! I’m Jenn! For those who don’t know I live in South Florida and I’ll begrudgingly admit I love it here. All three of my kids are Floridians, but I am from the DC/Baltimore metro area. Love it, it miss, don’t wanna live there. My mom died a few years ago and I inherited my brother and sister and father. The twins are off to college next year! They graduate June 7. Michael is headed to Stetson to do something involving computers and cinematography and Sara is staying local and transferring out later.

My bio kids are doing great (because face it, the twins are my kids too). Dorian is honor roll this year and is staying in the gifted classes for 4th grade next year. He’s way into his guitar and I wish I was as cool at 9 as he is. We just got him a new bike as an early birthday present because he outgrew his a while ago. He’s probably going to outgrow me by the end of the summer.

We had Malachai’s IEP this morning and his aide got approved and funded for next year (which means his is a definite) I just need to write a letter requesting s/he be put in place during language arts and not any other time of day. They also recommended gifted testing for placement next year so we’ll be getting a call about that over the summer. His IQ was scored at 128 in 2007, so they based it on that. Apparently at 130 he would have def. gotten in. Then they asked if we were on free or reduced lunch, and since we are the score is lowered to 116 to get in. I got a little vocal – that’s kind of fucked up, yah? Why lower the bar because our income is a little lower than someone else? Meh. It is so more economic groups are represented, but… affirmative action anyone? Just because I’ve got less money than someone else doesn’t mean we go to the museum any less and doesn’t mean my kids aren’t as smart as someone who has more money. I just think it’s a fucked up way to measure who gets into the G&T program. It’s something I can’t articulate the right way, so I hope you get what I am saying. Why lower the smart bar because of income, ya know? That ranks up there with making tests easier so more people pass them – which Fl has done repeatedly and I think that’s fucked up too. Ooo I’ll step off my soapbox now. So, the boy is smart, but needs redirection to stay on task. I’m hoping we can wean him off of the aid before he gets to jr. high.

Eshiva is trying out for company dance on Saturday. I still don’t know if we’re doing it, but I am obviously leaning towards it. She “graduates” from pre-k in June and I think it’s a joke that they have a whole graduation thing. We missed the K orientation last night, but it’s just to go over the curric, which we know. I still need to drop off the papers to enroll her. Her world is dance and school right now, she loves them both.

The office gal tried to corral me for PTA next year, but since it involves talking to tons of people, I’m not sure sure. I might sign up for something easy to do that doesn’t involve calling every parent in the school.

I have been busy in my garden. We’re also pricing gutters for the house, expanding the driveway, extending the back patio, doing some interior work, it never ends. I am amazed our house is still standing some days lol All it takes is money, right? And we all need more of it. We got three quotes for the gutters. I am leaning towards the middle quote, although the base quote is the work I originally wanted done. OTOH, I could put them up my damn self, but what about hurricanes? *shrugs* I finally set money aside and I’m getting my hair done next week. Don’t know what yet, but it’ll be back to red, maybe some blue, black, purple, whatever. I’ve been able to put money into savings for both us and each of the kids each check. I plan to have at least a grand by the end of the year and I want the kids to have at least 100$ each by the end of the year. I think we can do it unless *knock on wood* something comes up.

My gram isn’t doing too well, but she’s hanging on. I spoke with her today and she kept going on and on about wanting chickens and fresh eggs and she doesn’t have a coop but she could keep them on her back porch because it’s screened in. I don’t know if she really wants chickens or if she’s going senile. I’d love chickens, but we can’t have them in the Springs She keeps telling me she is 83 and she’s tired. I said your 83! You deserve some time off to rest. It’s sad I have a better grasp on a world without my mother than I do on a world without my gram.

So that’s what we’ve been up to! Summer is almost here. The kids are in camp 3 days a week and we’ll be touring Florida as often as we can on alternating weekends. I want to show them there is more than the fishbowl I like to live in. I’m thinking St. Augustine, Tampa, head out Alligator Alley and see the other coast, maybe go camping. I haven’t decided yet. I wanted to get up to Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, but that might be next summer. I think we’ll give driving trips a try a little more locally this summer and see how they pan out.

I think that’s it! I just thought I’d jump on the train of filling ya’ll in since I haven’t been posting as much as I’d like to.

and a little bit extra, Eshiva tried out for company. We had no music, no head shots, no resume and no dance rehearsed. I think she did ok. I have no idea, as I couldn’t watch, but she wasn’t crying

Im on my phone so this took forever and i didnt really elaborate. Suffice to say, i think the opportunity to swap gender at will, easily with no negative surgical repercussions, would be amazing.

1. What’s your natural color? as an adult, boring old brown
2. What’s your current color?auburn, red, faded red
3. What’s your favorite color?red!
4. Would you dye your kids hair if they asked you to? (We’re talking about the grade school crowd here)we’ve dome streaks, but not the entire head
5. Mohawk: Yes please or over my dead body?not in a long time, but I’d be down for one… not on the kids. I hate seeing mohawks on kids. Can’t explain it, it just bugs me

Let’s go back to the beginning. I started all but one of my current plants from seed. I didn’t expect it to work, it never had before. Lo and behold, I made plants! Well, I can grow a baby, so of course I can grow a plant. Shhh, it’s actually easier to grow a baby!

Let’s also skip my early attempts. I planted in paper Dixie cups, figuring once I had a great rootball I could put the cups in my compost bin (which I’ve had for a couple of years now). I got two full cycles out of those cups, and they did make it into my bin, but newspaper cups? Way easier. I promise.

First, gather your supplies. You’ll need an empty soda or juice can (or a juice cup about the same size, the key here is for it to be a perfect cylinder, not angled!), some old newspaper, planting soil*, seeds, and a low-sided box OR a low-sided plastic bin (see photos), both large enough to hold however may pots you are making.

*A note on your soil: if it feels too heavy for the size of the bag, it’s probably top soil and not good for planting. If it feels light, too light for the size of the bag, it’s probably perfect.

Step 1: separate your newspaper. Each full page will make two pots. Fold your full page in half, to make a half page, then fold it in half again to make a quarter page, then fold it in half again to make an eighth page. Now rip your paper down that last fold so you have two pieces. Do this until you have enough pieces for however many pots you want to make. I find it kind of tedious and usually only make 10 or 12 at a time.

Step 2: Now that you have all your pieces ready, stack them out of the way (weight them down if you do this outside!) and grab one and your can (or cup – I’ll be referring to your can from here on in… the one if your hand, not the not the one attached above your legs) and roll it up like in the photos below.

The paper should have about two inches hanging off the end of the can.

Steps 3, 4 & 5: On the side with the overlap first, bend in the bottom of the paper. See photos below. Then do this twice more (you can maybe get four folds, but three seems to be adequate) and there is your basic paper pot.

Step 6: Before you put the pot down, fill it with dirt! The dirt is what keeps it together, so if you set it down before filling it, it will pop open and you will have to repeat the last three minutes or so of your life.

Don’t pack the dirt in, but lightly pack it, like sifted flour or unpacked brown sugar. Lightly tap it down so it is dense enough to stay in but loose enough to allow sprouts out.

Step 7: Here comes the plastic or cardboard box. Put your paper pot in the box. This helps keep them contained for planting and watering, and when it is time to transfer your plants, it lets you carry thrum around easily. See, we’re thinking ahead!

Step 8: Using your pointer finger and poke a hole in your lightly packed soil up to the first knuckle. Most plants are good at this depth, but if your seed packet says otherwise, make a deeper or shallower hole. Do this in each of your pots.

Step 9: Sow your seed. No, not like a man, spraying it everywhere. Depending on what you are growing, drop 3 – 5 seeds into each hole (really though… I plant 4 – 6 bean seeds per hole, everything else I pour in and hope it isn’t too much, we’ll thin our seedlings later anyway) and then cave in the surrounding soil on top of your seeds. Feel free to get more soil from your bag to cover it if desired. Water lightly and walk away!

It can’t get any easier. Make sure your new plants are protected from rain and wind. I keep mine on my front porch, which is covered, and against the inside wall. South Florida torrential downpours still make their way in, but not enough to flood the seeds or ruin the pots. I made the mistake of leaving seedlings out back and the downpour one day ruined four packets of seedlings.

If you purchased the plastic bins, you can use the lids and make a mini hot house inside under a window.

Now, just water this daily (or as needed, the soil should be moist, not soaking wet) for 4 – 8 weeks and you’ll have plants ready to be put in the ground, no de-potting required! The newspaper pots will compost naturally in the ground.

Jenn is a stay at home mom in South Florida. By day she kisses boo-boos and bakes cakes, by night she is a writer, entrepreneur, lover and all around goddess. You can contact her at jenn@quirkymom.com if you have lots of money to throw at her for looking pretty or any other reason.