live from sublurbia

Think of a something Thursday

I’ve been thinking wayyy too much about food lately. The holidays are coming, I’m packing lunches and snacks for folks, planning my own meals away from the family, either on the road doing small writing projects or at home.

And LEFTOVERS. Oh, the leftovers. And quick-fix meals. And long-term cooking. And my freezer that keeps clicking.

The cycle usually goes like this. I get in a mood to cook a lot, or I find a deal and make a lot of something. Then I have the same tasting leftovers in the freezer forever, using up all of the few containers I have.

So I came up with a better idea while brainstorming this problem. Turn all the food into ice cubes. It worked for my breastmilk in my pumping days. It worked for kiddie purees. It works for my leftover broths! Continue Reading »

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[Think of a something Thursday!]

Growing up, we had a huge cake box full of cookie cutters. We’d get them out once or twice a year, taking over the kitchen to make COOOKIES. Great busy, messy fun during the summer and winter breaks. But excavating them was a major chore. And the box usually sat around until all the cutters were washed and put up – usually a few days or even weeks (eep!).

I was pretty good about cookie cutters at first, but they seemed to take up an awful lot of space in the “whatever” drawer (Which reminds me – any use for corn holders? I’ve given up on those little stabby knobs.). The cutters spread to the boxed lunch area (cute sandwich shapes!) and the toaster oven (ghostest toastest with the mostest!). I did a quick purging of the kitchen and came up with a count of seventeen, and I know that doesn’t even cover the ones in our art bins. Continue Reading »

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Although, to be fair, Laser Beam is a head taller than me, so he’s actually rather big for a birdie. We’ve got family coming and it really needs doing.

[picture of paint cans]

It’s been a crazy crazy couple of weeks since the audition and I feel as if I’ve gotten nothing done. Some logo work, some paperwork, wear and tear tests. PHEW! I feel bad because I haven’t really emailed any of the cool inventors I met last month. I need to do that, soon.

And I’m still doing part time writing work, looking for full-time work, coordinating getting a new roof on, and getting ready for family visiting/staying/traveling from now through the end of August. Double PHEW!

Anyway, birdies. I’m on Twitter now, and you can follow me here. I’ve also put together a very basic official “me” page on Facebook here. I’m trying to link them together, or not. Trying to figure out what to do with it all, keep this a mom/idea blog but I guess it’s turning more into an invention blog, which is kind of the point I was going at with the [TOAST] (Think of a Something Thursday) posts.

More birdies – we are at the halfway mark of when the inventor show producers said they’d start talking to people about being on the show. Wooo! Continue Reading »

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If I didn’t know better, I’d say my spices were afraid of heights.

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Not to make it a habit but blogging about something that didn’t work last week was actually kind of nice. A lot of famous experimenters and inventors didn’t knock it out of the park the first thing, and goodness knows I’ve screwed up more than a few things trying to raise these kids and heck just figure out life. Some of my Facebook friends had some nice comments and suggestions to go along with it, too.

This last week back home was a little crazy – extra house guests and the house a fright from being away for two weeks. I woke up Sunday morning to the unusually overpowering odor of curry powder. Fearing the young ones had decided to fix themselves breakfast and managed to roll their ownselves in curry powder, I popped into a kitchen thick with curry scent and minus all my throw rugs.

Luckily, another adult had gotten to the scene first. Unluckily, my experiment in floating spices had failed. Glass, fine powder, tile floor, throw rugs … clean up on asile me! Continue Reading »

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Gosh, I’m not sure I even remember how to TOAST anymore, but here goes ….

I know I mentioned during one of my infrequent spring pop-ins that I joined the ranks of the unemployed earlier this year. Whee.

I have had some interviews, and some nibbles. Nothing I could take to the bank; mostly the jobs were far away but I’m so over that. I want to live in the city I sleep in. Consequently, the pickings have been slim, but I’ve managed to land a job that I can do from home a lot. Some travel, not the corporate salary I’d been spoiled by, but home-based writing, yay.

When it got really slow at the beginning of this month (no criticism of those who are employing me!) I signed up for school. I did it the wrong way, of course, jumping in randomly on the last day of registration and missing a few days (BAD IDEA in the summer). But I caught up and my grades are pretty good. I’m re-learning Microsoft Office (2007 version) and will probably get certified in it later this year.

But my book? I spent seventy bucks on that darn thing (if I’d registered earlier I could have bought it online for about $20). And I can’t sell it back. No one is buying it, anywhere.

Why? Continue Reading »

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Think of a Something Thursday!

One of the tips I’ve picked up from daycare, summer camp, and other mommies is a focal point for herding children around. One kid, four kids, or more (especially if they are a leetle bit older). I used it just the other day herding a few five year olds and a two/three year old to the movies and park. I parked the car next to a tree that occupied a median, and had each get next to the tree and hug it once they left the car as I unbuckled them individually.

It worked in reverse, too – they stayed there as I unlocked the car and buckled them all back in, one by one by one.

But I’ve had the darnedest time getting them to stay back from the TV. It’s like herding cats as they get more drawn in to Signing Time or Dora or Magic School Bus and inch back. Until I invented the “no zone”.

The hub was suspicious when I abandoned my pursuit of our usual decorating style: late college years, early messy childhood. I asked to buy a rug for the living room. “Whyyyy …” he he trailed off cautiously. Continue Reading »

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Think of a Something Thursday!

I have never had to label things so much as since I’ve had kids.

My last year of junior high, I needed a new coat and I found a lovely hot pink one (ah … the hot colored eighties; quite a change from the autumnal seventies). It included a zip-out black and pink fleece check-pattern inner jacket/mini jacket/liner. Mom told me to put my name on it, but I didn’t want to. I assured her I would be careful, and keep track of it; putting my name it in was so grade schoool.

I see you nodding along there on the other side of the computer. And the answer is, I’d be surprised if I had it all for even two weeks. The outer coat was “too hot” one Friday afternoon so I hung it up on the rack at my after school hangout. Sure enough, by the next Monday it was gone.

I think I still have the inner jacket – stashed somewhere in the Garage of Doom^TM.

My first trick of labeling things as a mobile pumper was the use of Post It flags. I had a TON of them from a previous co-worker who stuck them on every page to mark every change. I labeled the bottles simply, with numbers. The day-mommies fed the bottles to the kid in the order they were labeled. This was important because I’d send some fresh milk and some frozen milk, and I wanted the frozen milk to be served first. These durable, reusable labels were also great for home use and babysitters. Continue Reading »

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[Think Of A Something Thursday!]

I had a plan when it came to breast feeding and traveling for business. Don’t.

It didn’t quite work out that way, though, as an unexpected trip came my way before my youngest was on cow milk in any substantial amount.

My supply has always been sporadic at best, and she wasn’t helping the situation by refusing formula. I kept up as best I could for as long as I could, but was relieved when she finally took to solid foods. Even then, I pumped at work and home, and slowly built a little freezer stash.

Once I found out I’d be traveling in the middle of the transition to more cow milk, I burned through my stash as quickly as possible and started up a new one. Continue Reading »

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_{Author’s Note: I wrote this out a long time ago, before I came up with the original TOAST (Think of a Something Thursday) format. We’ve come a long way, baybee!}

TOAST: Think of a Something Thursday

Long before I acquired my stable of shopping bags, and when I bothered to remember, I’d tell a store clerk trying to bag one or two items: “No thank you”. A habit borne of managing to accumulate too much junk (which I still do, adventure-girl/packrat that I am) but a habit that also fit in nicely with the Reduce part of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

When I was a kid, the grocery stores in my area were dominated by paper sacks. And that was it for a long time. They were great, useful – book covers, art papers, shipping paper, patterns, “canvas”. When plastic bags started coming around along with the advent of “bag your own” stores in my neck of the woods, the bags were your typical two handled affair seen today. Us kids adapted and used them to make simple box kites. Tie a string, find a gust of wind, and go. No sticks, no tails, no tape and paper and glue … But no sharks teeth or dragons, either. Nothing to paint or enhance. I think after one or two gos we were done and bored.

I started out my latest foray into self-bagging and non-plastic bagging like I do most things. In fits and spurts. (The hub asked me the other day how long my to-do list was. I asked in return, “which volume?”.) But I rounded up a sampling of totes I had anyway (I prefer simple totes instead of most diaper bags) along with the inexpensive reusable bags I mentioned the other day.

Surely there was one perfect bag to hold my ‘fancy’ cheeses, wines, crusty loafs of bread, and swirly pops for the kids, right? Be it a quick trip for a parents-only dinner or the restocking of the hurricane pantry, just grab a cloth bag and go, yes? No, not so much. Continue Reading »

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