MyTalesFromTheCrib: April 2013

Tuesday

Screen-Free Week April 30-May 5, 2013 - STARTS TODAY!

My cousin posted this yesterday and it was the first time I saw this particular event. I've seen them in the past and always thought, "I should do that." and then I quickly forgot about it an hour later and I went to log on to the computer or turn on Disney Jr for the kids so I could cook dinner.

Screen-Free Week Fail #1.

My cousin said she was going to go screen-free for the week starting yesterday (a day early) and if you needed to contact her then do so via old school methods - the phone. Imagine that? Phone calls that are friends wanting to chat as opposed to solicitors or the school principal.

So I thought I'd give it a go. But I'm going to be realistic about it at first. Try to ease into it on day 1-2-ish. I don't do well in cold-turkey/all-or-nothing situations. I have given myself permission to journal about it via my blog. My issue isn't the internet in general - my issue is facebook. (In more ways than 1, but that is another post for another time.)

I will "check-in" via this blog each day to share our progress and from this blog I will share it on twitter and my facebook page. However, I'm not going to actually go to the twitter and facebook pages because it's too easy to get sucked in over there. Here in my calm little corner of the internet on my mom's blog I don't have a running ticker of what the rest of the world is doing and all other manner in which facebook keeps you hanging about on it's site. I kind of like that.

Please check back this week to see how the kids and I are doing during our attempt at Screen-Free Week 2013.

So far it's friggin' Lord Of The Flies over here. Lots of tears and a lot of fighting and a lot of figuring out our place in the world and what to do with ourselves - and it's only been a few hours...on day #1....

Wish us luck.

Here are some daily updates. We're seriously doing this!!

Screen-Free Week Day 1: Recap.
Screen-Free Week Day 2: "Mommy, What's a Hypocrite?"
Screen-Free Week Day 3: Recap - Keep Calm and Carry On.

Friday

Peace Rocks.

"Peace is the result of retraining your mind to process life as it is, rather than as you think it should be."

-Wayne W. Dyer

Peace Rocks.

We need more peace in our lives. For the sake of our children and for the future of our world - we need more peace. It starts at home and the way we treat ourselves, the way we treat our family, our friends and our community. What is one thing you can do today to create a positive difference in your world and bring more peace into your life?

"When you spread love to your children, they will spread love to the world!"
-Colleen Duncan Canavan

The Trader Joe's Gourmet Presents: Pollo Asada Black Bean Chili w/ Farm Fresh Cilantro

Pollo Asada Chili. Extremely simple and yummy!

So I'm not "officially" the Trader Joe's Gourmet, but I might as well be. I buy pretty much everything there and a lot of my recipes on here consist of ingredients you'll find at Trader Joe's. If you live in an area where it's too far away or you simply don't have one - GASP! - (my condolences) you can always find stuff similar elsewhere. After all, it's just food. BTW, I completely feel your pain if you like Trader Joe's but you don't have one in your area. There aren't any Trader Joe's in Hawaii and we lived there for a few years when we were first married and it was VERY hard for me to get used to not getting pretty much everything there. We also didn't have a Target. It was bad. I mean, no Target and no Trader Joe's? You call that paradise? jk.

sorta.

So, this was dinner last night. I threw it together from stuff I had on hand and stuff that needed to be cooked so it didn't go bad and I also wanted to use some of the cilantro that had just popped up in our garden. The dish turned out to be pretty yummy which is always good when you don't follow any type of recipe so I wanted to post it here so I don't forget how to make it.

*I pretty much never follow a recipe and I usually forget what I've made so I'm trying to make a point to write recipes down so I can make it again.

This made up the bulk of the dish. I didn't drain the cans before I added them to the sauce pan but will drain the beans next time so it's not too soupy.

Fresh organic cilantro from our little family farm. Isn't it beautiful? And it smells AMAZING!

There's nothing like fresh produce that you grow yourself. "Kids, run out to the farm and pick mommy some cilantro for dinner!" Awesome.

I don't have a pic of the pollo asada. The next time I buy it I will update this post with a pic. But I bought a package of fresh, marinated pollo asada from Trader Joe's in their fresh meat/poultry section. It was a bit salty - more than we are used to anyway because I usually cook stuff from scratch and I don't add much salt at all. But it was still good. A little too hot for the kids. They didn't eat it. Good thing I had left overs from the other night of turkey, rice and veggies! Hubby and I liked it though and plan to buy it again and throw it on the BBQ next time.

I sauteed the chicken in the pan with the juices and a bit of water added from the bag. I browned it until the juices reduced down to a glaze on the pan. I de-glazed the pan with some water (you can also use chicken stock). I then sliced the chicken into chunks and added it and the de-glazed juices into my pot of black beans. (see below)

So far this was black beans, diced tomatoes, 1 garlic cube (see pics below), Hawaiian rock salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste and fresh cilantro from our garden torn into small bits. Next time I won't add the extra salt to the beans since the chicken was salty enough and I just saw that the black beans contain sea salt. My fault for not reading the can.

I added in half a bag of frozen organic corn (about 1 heaping cup+)

1 pouch of frozen, precooked rice medley of brown rice, red rice and black barely* (see pic above)

Fresh cracked pepper and more fresh cilantro.

I cooked it until it was bubbling.

*The box of rice comes with 3 (10oz) pouches.

I topped the dish with some shredded jack cheese and more fresh cilantro because that was all we had on hand. Next time I might add some more toppings and I will squeeze in some fresh lime for sure. Can't have enough fresh lime. Yum!

Optional Toppings:

-Sour Cream

-Diced avocado

-Diced fresh tomato

-Diced raw onion

-Fresh salsa

-Squeeze of fresh lime

I don't have a pic of the finished dish because it was time to eat. Plus it was the first evening we ate al fresco on our patio since last summer and I didn't want my dish cooling off too much while I went to get the camera. (We have a no cell phone rule at dinner time so my cell was in the house.)

If you make this let me know how you like it and what you did differently.

Enjoy!

Looking for more recipes using black beans and rice? This one also has shrimp! Yuuuuuuum!
Hawaiian Basil Buttered Shrimp with Black Beans and Wild Rice

Coming soon to this recipe: Homegrown organic tomatoes and homegrown organic corn.

Just waiting for them to grow. ;-)

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Tuesday

My Heart Goes Out To Boston. Trying to cope with tragedy while being a mom.

As a stay-at-home mom of two small children who are 5 and 2, my ability and willingness to stay informed via the television or internet news videos during a national tragedy is very limited. Like most moms of small children who are still at home during the day, I do not expose them to anything on the news - especially things of a graphic, tense, scary or disturbing nature. Therefore, I am somewhat in the dark when it comes to the intricate details of school shootings, theater shootings, mass bombings, or major natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and tsunamis. Which I guess you could say is a good thing. I'm aware of them and my heart goes out to the victims and their loved ones but since I've become a mom, I'm just not devouring the details like everyone else. I learned my lesson with Columbine. There wasn't a detail about that entire experience I couldn't recite and it became very unhealthy.

Part of my reason for avoiding the details is that it's hard to separate your reality from it and part of it is the need for everyone to share such graphic photos of the victims on the internet as well as the nightly news, and then talk about the details of the events with children present or within ear shot. I'd like to ask people to please be mindful of the information the little ones in your life might be soaking up from the media or from your conversations with others.

I know for myself I take on too much of the negativity and internalize it and dwell on it and the fact that I can't help those poor people. It eventually manifests itself into anger or depression, especially when I want to help but don't really have a realistic way to help out from across the country other than writing a check to a major organization like the Red Cross or something.

As a mom I have to face these things differently. So in between naps, snacks, crafts and preschool drop offs/pick ups I check-in on facebook or CNN online, etc., to watch the death toll rise - feeling utterly helpless.

I follow a local news channel on facebook and today they posted about the Boston Marathon bombings and I read a comment made by a mother who tagged her adult son asking him or anyone who knows him to please contact her. She had not heard from him yet and she was getting worried because she was pretty sure he was running the marathon since he runs many of the major marathons across the country. I hope she finds him to be OK. In my twitter feed I read a tweet from a women I follow who said that her sister's nephew lost a leg today in the bombings. It's hard to keep reading about the tragedy because with events like this I find myself spacing out in this fog of devastating information, tears and deep sadness and then my toddler runs up and says, "mama, I have to go poo poo" and then breaks into hysterical laughter from his own gas. Not to make light of the situation or to disrespect the victims or their families, this is just my reality at the moment. Children have this way of reminding us of our present reality regardless of any major disaster or devastation that is going on in the world around us - and I'm grateful to them for that.

My heart goes out to you Boston. You are in my thoughts. You are in my prayers. You are on my mind today and the coming days. I hope we can all find the answers we need.

Today my preschooler and I decided to paint with water colors. It was a gloomy day for reasons other than just the funky weather and painting seemed like the best solution for us to bring some light into our day even though she had no idea what happened in Boston today.

We found ourselves painting rainbow hearts. It wasn't really planned, it was just something our brushes were guiding us to do. I'm dedicating our paintings to the victims and families of the Boston Marathon bombings today. We're calling them Hearts For Boston and I'm posting them on our facebook page too. I hope it inspires someone else to create Hearts For Boston too. If you do then please be sure to post it on our page so we can share it and spread some love to the victims and their families. There is so much negativity surrounding the event and trying to find out who did it and why we tend to loose sight that people are hurting both physically and mentally and we need to support them with love. Our world needs more love, I know that for sure.

Painted for one of the young victims of the Boston Marathon bombings. I would love to somehow send this to his family but I'm not sure where to send it. If you have any suggestions on where I could send it please let me know in the comments section. Thank you!!