Karyn Ford's Blog
My garden is not very happy this year, but I grew these heritage blend Cosmos from seed. This is the first time I managed to get more than a sprout from seed, so I’m pretty proud!
Also, we uncovered that bird bath from the back corner of our yard and now I can watch the birds splash around from my bedroom window.
Turning our tiny yard into a happy place!
I distinctly remember being horribly embarrassed of the way my mom would talk to everyone about everything in public places. We would be in line at the grocery store and next thing you know it she’s chit-chatting away with some random stranger and talking about my English teacher or we were down at the marina and she’s telling some equally random stranger about my brothers baseball skills “His nickname is the vacuum!” I would physically cringe. “Not againnnnn! MOM!” Yeah, that’s right. Guess who can’t go grocery shopping without having a conversation with the people in line for lunchmeat? This girl right here. I don’t know what happened. Maybe it’s what happened to my Mom as well, but at some point in the past few years I have become my mother. Everywhere we go I find myself chit-chatting away with random strangers. Not only do I acknowledge this now, but I appreciate it. People are so interesting and I find it fascinating all the little conversations I have with people and how they weave in with life. Ugh, what is happening to me?! I am sorry Mom, for being the bitchy young adult that I was. I get it now. Thank you for passing this trait on to me. I’m sure my kids will be equally embarrassed soon enough!
If you live in the midwest, chances are you need this recipe. I love zucchini bread, but you can only make so many batches. My mother-in-law sent me this recipe years ago. It is “from somewhere on the internet.” We have both adjusted it many times adding different vegetables and seasonings, I have made a dairy-free version, an egg free version, a whole wheat version, it’s fun to mess around with, but it is the best base recipe for zucchini pancakes that I have found. So head out to the garden or your local farmers market and embrace those giant zucchini’s out there!
Zucchini Pancakes
2 cups grated zucchini (use the larger side for grating)
1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 Tablespoon Milk
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup onion-diced small (optional)
Mix everything together. Heat a pan or griddle to medium. Make them the way you would pancakes. I like to use olive oil instead of butter.
*I usually double or triple the recipe depending on how much zucchini I have. Make them in batches and keep them warm in a 200 degree oven.
*Serve with corn on the cob and any other summer favorites and you have a cheap and easy meal to feed a family of four.
*You can also substitute half of the grated zucchini with grated carrot.
* If by chance you have leftovers you could reheat them, but they are actually good cold!
Dear Tooth Fairy: I lost my tooth today. I mean really lost. One minute it was in my mouth and the next it wasn’t. There is no sign of it anywhere. My mom says I may have swallowed it. I hope not but its not looking good. I put a paper tooth that I made in its place under my pillow-don’t worry, the red isn’t really blood, just red marker. Please take this into consideration. Also, I have photographic evidence of my tooth hole:
Somebody got the flu…
I have never seen this kid so miserable. Yesterday I got him ready for school thinking he was feeling better and then he sat down and pretty much stayed like this the rest of the day. He slept more that day then he has ever slept in one day in his ENTIRE life. No joke. He is not fond of sleeping and normally if you mention the word nap he yells “I HATE NAPS!” This week he has been requesting naps. So what do you do with your kids when they are that miserable? I try to read books, we did a craft, but for the most part we have been watching a lot of cartoons. That is the only time he isn’t moaning about his misery. And then what do you do with kid number 2 who doesn’t have the flu? Tell her to close her eyes??? Luckily with all of the napping he really wasn’t staring at a screen all day. So yeah, cartoons. These days its pretty easy to watch cartoons without having to watch all the commercials for crap. I’ve gotten pretty good at avoiding them. So I thought! Turns out that when you watch a cartoon onDemand with our cable service they still interrupt your show with commercials for crap. And after the second show, probably the 2nd or 3rd time this commercial aired, this happened:
In case you didn’t hear that right, my 3 year old told me that she wants Fruity Pebbles, a cereal she admits she has never had, but is her “favorite” and the reason she needs it is because it is “part of a complete breakfast” holy hell, my daughter has been brainwashed!
so then we had THE TALK
What the heck is part of a complete breakfast? and why does Mom hate cereal so much? First off, I love cereal. But every time I eat cereal I am starving less than an hour later. Not just a little hungry but STARVING. Sugar crashes, and food dye, and unpronounceable ingredients. Ahh! Yes there are good cereals out there, but we are talking about the junk food that is marketed to our kids that is basically a lie. It is kinda hard to explain to kids why things that taste so good are not part of a complete breakfast. So we focused on what we normally eat for breakfast and why they are so much better. Oatmeal with fresh berries, eggs with black beans and turkey sausage, homemade breakfast bars with greek yogurt smoothies. Things that fill you up and make you feel good and give you long lasting energy so you can have a good day, not an I’m tired and starving and cranky kind of day. We talked about protein and good carbs and low sugar options. Yes, we really did. Maybe they don’t fully comprehend it now, but if they keep hearing that they need protein to start their day over and over again, one day it might sink in. If my daughter can watch a commercial 3 times and declare that Fruity Pebbles are her favorite food even though she has never tried them, then I bet by next year she will be telling me that she needs more omega-3 fatty acids in her dinner.
We are a little off right now because last night she told me her pee was clear because she had lots of protein that day! but its a start…
I don’t know, maybe I’m just ranting, maybe we should throw the tv out the window if I don’t want my kids exposed to commercials, maybe I’m too controlling, but it just gets to me that kids are being targeted and fed false information. Don’t they deserve better?
We like to get the kids questioning things and making up their own stories. Recently we were sitting around talking about what if Santa wasn’t a fat guy in a suit. The idea of Santa Squid came up. I don’t know why, but the kids think its hilarious and Santa Squid is talked about more than Mr. Claus. Enough that Clint made a special card for the kids. So to everyone out there willing to question reality: Merry Squid-Mas!
Nothing like some good voodoo magic to get me back to blogging. We have found a somewhat local NAET practitioner (30 min drive as opposed to the 60 min drive I was prepared to make. Mason has had a terrible cough for months now. It has been determined by his pediatrician that it is related to allergies, which is what I suspected, but so far every last thing they have recommended has not worked. And yes, I did give it a chance! So we are trying NAET again and hoping we have results as good as when we did NAET with Maiya. Last week was brain balancing, and tonight is egg mix. We will be keeping all egg and chicken related things at least 5 feet from Mason’s energy field for approx 25 hours after treatment. Yes, we are weird. Yes, I really believe this crazy sounding stuff works. I will try to update as we go. Let the voodoo magic begin!
Mason has been real close to reading for quite a while now. We could tell he was ready, but he just didn’t have the confidence to do it yet. That kid hates making mistakes, and I think that now that he is in kindergarten and he is seeing how easy the work is for him, he is realizing that he is quite capable of reading basic early reader books. It is so exciting watching this click with him. Tonight he picked his bedtime story and announced that HE was going to read it to us! AND HE DID! And he was SO excited! You could tell that he was not just loving all the praise from us, but he is truly proud of himself. Good times, I tell ya, good times.
This past weekend I spent some time with my sisters at a cabin Up North.
Maiya(holding an acorn “hat”): When you listen to an acorn, do you hear Up North
Me: Yes, you hear quiet, because it’s so quiet there.
Maiya: I hear it!
That was magical 🙂
I washed my face with ground oatmeal tonight followed by an oatmeal/honey/almond milk mask because my sister has been demanding I try it. It was pretty weird and all kinds of awesome. Worked way better than most face wash products I have tried. I now demand that you try it! The smell reminded me of having the chicken pox in 4th grade and taking an oatmeal bath. The mask reminded me of washing oatmeal off the kids face when they were babies. Lots of weird emotions going on here…
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