Yellow Squash

Growing up, I never liked squash. Even as late as college I had some and didn't like it. But last summer I tried it again, and suddenly I love it!

You just slice it thin and sautee it in a little butter or olive oil. As it cooks, add salt and pepper and just a bit of brown sugar. (I've never measured the amount, I just take a healthy pinch from the package). It doesn't make the squash sweet, but it somehow carmelizes and makes the squash brown up nicely. It tastes so good. I would make squash with dinner every night if I could!

I planted some squash plants this year specifically so that I could have my own supply of yellow squash and be able to make it for dinner several times a week. Unfortunately, my garden did not thrive this year. The peas and carrots and strawberries I planted never sprouted at all. Of all the squash seeds I planted (and it was quite a few - I really wanted a lot of squash) only two plants came up. And on those plants, only one lonely blossom. So maybe I'll get a squash by the end of the summer. In the meantime, I guess it's off to King Soopers and the farmer's market for me. Maybe next year's garden will be more successful!

(And if you have extra yellow squash in your garden, I'll gladly take it off your hands! ;) )

Saying Goodbye to George

Some of you may remember that we've been dealing with illness with our cat George. He had kidney failure and we've been trying to treat it and help him feel better. We've had to give him IV fluid treatments every other day to help with the kidney problems. As you can imagine, George was not happy about those treatments.

In spite of the treatments, he continued to go downhill to the point that we could tell he just didn't have any quality of life any more. We finally made the difficult decision that it was time for him to go and made an appointment with the vet for euthanasia.

Last night and today we encouraged the kids to hold and pet George and took some pictures with him. Before his appointment we all hugged him and petted him and told him goodbye. It was rough on the kids and hard for them to understand. It was rough on me, too. I've had George for 11 years, since he was a tiny kitten. It was hard to let him go and hard not to feel like I was betraying him by sending him away to die. We all cried quite a bit when it was time for him to go to the vet.

Aaron was sweet enough to offer to take George for the actual appointment. He knew I couldn't deal with being there. When he got to the vet, they gave George a quick exam and told Aaron that the fluid treatments weren't helping with the kidney failure anymore and that he was in heart failure as well. No wonder he hadn't felt good. They reassured Aaron that we'd made the right decision and that euthanasia was the best thing for George at this point. Aaron said George was very calm and just went to sleep. It was very quick.

It was hard all over again when Aaron got home and the kids asked where George was. We had to explain again that he had died and wouldn't be coming home to our house again. We had told the kids that George was going to heaven and that seemed to reassure Haley because she said that she was glad that George was going to live with God. Of course, later Haley informed me that she had said a prayer and asked God to send George home to us again once he was feeling better. I'm hoping I dealt with that the right way, but who knows...

At any rate, it's been kind of a rotten day here at our house. Hopefully everyone will feel a bit better by tomorrow.

Restaurant.com

I LOVE to eat out. Even with the frustrations that go along with taking three small children to a restaurant, I will always jump at the chance to go eat somewhere new. But it gets expensive to take The Five of Us out to a restaurant.

Luckily, my sister-in-law (thanks, Jen!) instroduced me to a website called Restaurant.com. At Restuarant.com, you can buy gift certificates to lots of different restaurants for a reduced price. For instance, a $25 gift certificate usually costs only $10. But it's still worth $25 off your bill at the restaurant! After you purchase, you just print the gift certificate right on your own printer - no waiting for it to arrive in the mail. Super convenient.

As a bonus, the website often runs specials that reduce the price of the gift certificates even further. You just have to stop in often (or sign up for e-mail alerts) to see what specials are running. For example, last week they ran a 70% off special... so I bought $25 gift certificates for only $3 each! With that kind of price cuts, I can afford eating out a lot more easily.

You do have to read the fine print before you buy... some restaurants require a certain $$ purchase before you can use the gift certificate (for example, $35 to use a $25 gift certificate). Some tell you up front that they will automatically add the tip to your bill when you use the gift certificate (so that you don't accidentally stiff the wait staff by not tipping based on the full price of the meal). Some limit the days of the week that you can use the gift certficate (Sun - Thurs is a common limitation). But for me, these are all things I can work around - and well worth it for the great discounts on a meal that I don't have to cook!

So that's what's working for me this week. Check out the Works for Me Wednesday blog carnival at We Are That Family to see what's working for others!

Saying Yes

After having a good day with my kids on Saturday, I really noticed on Sunday and Monday that things didn't go so well. I was constantly saying No! You can't do this. No, don't do that. No, no, no, no!

Then I read this blog about saying Yes. Basically, the author says that her natural reaction is always to say No to her kids. And so is mine! No, that's going to make a mess. No, that means I have to get up from the couch where I finally had a chance to sit down for two minutes. No, I don't think you can do that without my help and I don't really want to do it. No, I don't really have a good reason for saying no - I'm just used to doing it.

And I realized that my reasons for saying no are not usually because I'm worried about safety or anything like that. Instead, it's selfishly motivated to avoid more work for myself! And that's not really fair to the kids. So I have set a new goal for myself to say Yes to my kids.

Yes! You can spread your own peanut butter on that sandwich. Yes! You can push the button to start the microwave. Yes! You can wear your gymnastics uniform to Melissa's house (I actually did say yes to this one). No, you can't play in the front yard by yourselves (because I have to draw a line somewhere!).

And while I'm at it, I'm going to try harder to be nice to my kids in general. Sometimes I forget that they're just being kids, and not really being obnoxious to make me mad. Even if that is the end result. So... this week, I'm saying yes and being nice. I'll let you know how that goes...

"The X and Y of Buy" by Elizabeth Pace

Here's another book review post for the Thomas Nelson Book Review Blogger program (http://brb.thomasnelson.com/). This time I'm reviewing The X and Y of Buy by Elizabeth Pace.

Summary
This book is about the different ways that men and women think when it comes to things like shopping, buying, and choosing various consumer goods. It provides lots of specific recommendations for ways to sell to men vs. selling to women.

My Reactions
Well, I chose this book from the list because I thought it would be an interesting look at the differences between men and women. Kind of like Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus with a shopping twist. And I guess that's kind of true, but I am just really not the intended audience for this book. The book is really for hardcore salespeople and marketing professionals. I think that those people would find the book valuable. But for someone just looking for an interesting read, it didn't hit the mark for me. I found the writing style dry and textbook-like. It very much took me back to my college days and I really felt I had to plow through the material to finish the book. The illustrations and tables were small, black-and-white, and didn't grab my attention.

Overall, I would only recommend this book to a serious marketing or sales professional. Otherwise, I don't think you'll enjoy it or gain much from reading it.

Small Triumphs

Well, I had big plans for today. I was going to get the house cleaned up. I was going to put away all the stuff that's still in bags from our trip last weekend. I was going to get caught up on laundry and dishes. I was going to get rid of all those weeds in the yard. I was going to work on potty training Preston. I was going to change the litterboxes.

None of that happened. I could let myself feel bummed out that I didn't accomplish the things I hoped to do. Instead, I'm going to celebrate the small triumphs I experienced today.

I didn't really make any progress on potty training, but I did at least get him to put on underwear and agree to sit on the potty a couple of times. I didn't get all the dishes done, but I did do one load. And I figured out how to fix our malfunctioning garbage disposal while I was at it! I didn't get caught up on laundry - in fact it's worse than before (see the potty training issues above). I didn't clean the house or pull a single weed. The litterboxes still need to be changed. But I did go to the library with my children and spend some time cuddling with all of them while we read books and watched a movie from the library. The house and weeds and laundry will all be there tomorrow, so for today, I'm going to feel happy that I spent some time enjoying my children instead.

I love Saturday morning

It's the only day of the week that I don't have to get up early and be on my way. Even Sunday mornings are stressful because I have to get everyone ready for church first thing in the morning. But on Saturday, I can sleep in as long as the kids allow. Even after everyone wakes up, I just stay in bed for a while. All the kids climb in bed too. There's some snuggling, maybe a little extra nap if they drop back to sleep. Sometimes they just climb all over me and the bed with a burst of morning energy.

But whatever we do, it's nice to just have a little bit of lazy time laying around in bed with them all on a Saturday morning. It reminds me of how much I love my kids and love to just play with them.