Sneaking Food

My daughter was caught sneaking food tonight. She tried to flush away evidence from a jello cup. So I made her use her own hands to scoop it out of the toilet... I also made her wash her hands TWICE with soap, even though I cleaned the toilet two days ago and it only had water in there, still gross in my opinion. Afterwards I put her to bed AGAIN and found food in her room.

 

I found: a bag of sunflower seeds, an empty capri sun, a box of granola bars and 2 empty wrappers, an empty packet of cheese crackers and an unopened packet of cheese crackers.

 

I was thinking I gotta lock my fridge and pantry but I think the answer is, I have to stop buying snack food. I buy them mainly to go into school lunches but seriously, cheese crackers aren't that healthy and the granola bars are mine and I don't need them, I buy them to get a hit of chocolate without the huge guilt afterwards. She can get milk from school even if I send her lunch and no one actually needs jello. So that leaves the sunflower seeds which are her fathers and they're okay really but I think she just likes to suck the salt off of them and make a mess with the shells.

It's just a horrible eating issue is what this is. She says she's hungry. She is overweight. I could blame so many things, genetics, her sensory issues due to her autism, medication for her autism, me. I would say my daughters weight/food issues are the main thing I feel guilty about as a parent. It is one of two things I feel I have done wrong as a mom. My entire family has weight problems and I struggle with it myself, how could I have let this happen to my princess too.

I'm going to fix it though. I'm going to think of something. I have to.    

Roasted Veggies

Recipe

 

 

Roasted Vegetables

 

Ingredients

 
extra-virgin olive oil

1 1/2 cups Brussels sprouts (about 1/2 pound), halved

Potatoes (about 2 pounds), cut into bite sized pieces 

Sweet potatoes (about 1 pound), cut into bite sized pieces

Broccoli (about 1/2 pound), cut into pieces 

dried oregano

dried rosemary

dried thyme

dried basil

teaspoon sea salt

black pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Grease an 11 by 17-inch baking sheet pan with extra-virgin olive oil. Place vegetables in baking sheet and add the dried herbs, salt and pepper. Toss well, evenly coating all the vegetables with the seasonings and oil. Add more oil if the vegetables seem dry

Spread the vegetables evenly on a large baking sheet. Place on middle rack in oven and bake for 35 to 40 minutes.

(This is how I cooked it. I did not measure the herbs, I just sprinkled until I felt the veggies were thoroughly covered. These were so delicious! I did base this recipe off of one I found on food network though.)

 http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/roasted-potatoes-carrots-parsnips-and-brussels-sprouts-recipe2/index.html

Recipe

 

 

Lamb Chops
Ingredients: 2 lb package of lamb chops Rosemary Salt Black Pepper Dijon Mustard Olive Oil Garlic powder  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Season the lamb by sprinkling salt and pepper on both sides. Place in the baking dish, then sprinkle rosemary on top. Bake for 20 minutes. Spread the Dijon mustard on both sides. You can do this by hand, although it will be messy, or you can use a knife, but try to cover all meat surfaces thinly with the mustard.  Drizzle olive oil over the lamb . Sprinkle both sides with garlic powder, more black pepper and salt. Place the lamb in the baking dish once more, this time with the side up that was down the first time in the oven. Sprinkle on more rosemary. Return to the 400 degree oven and bake for 20-30 minutes. Use a cooking thermometer to make sure that the lamb is cooked through sufficiently for safety. The internal temperature should be at least 145 degrees for medium-rare, 160 degrees for medium, and 170 degrees for well done. Remove from oven and serve.

Copyright © 2007 Clifford Neuman

http://cooking.bcneuman.com/meats/lamb-chops.php

 

 

(I did fix a few typos from the recipe as well as changed a few things and posted it how I cooked it.)



PLUS 1

We're starting the process to adopt a child from Hong Kong... we know we want a precious girl and probably one with special medical needs. So, I'll be back to blogging because I want to document the whole process.

Also on a different note, Tyler & Johna should be starting therapy soon and I want to talk about that as well. After we get the ABA started I hope to also look into speech for both kids, OT for Johna and possibly hippotherapy for both kids also.

 

I sure do love my kids! I am so blessed!

 



Early call

So I woke up this morning because I hear Johna talking in the kitchen. I owe her teacher an apology because that's who she had called at 6:00am. I made her get off the phone and go back to bed. I really need to hide my phone because she plays with it way too much... calling people, taking pictures, recording videos, recording herself talking.....

High hopes

I think I get high hopes when meeting people in certain situations because I have no friends so I am always hoping to make one... or a few.


I have been going to college for 2.5 years and yeah I met a few people that I like, we're fb buddies and every great once in awhile we might text each other but we're not friends. We don't do anything together. I do miss having classes with a few of them though.


To be honest I am also a little picky. I can't be friends with people who do drugs or anything else illegal, people a lot younger than me seem more like children to me than possible bff's and to be honest I like the idea of a married christian mother, you know someone similar to myself.


I started going to church a little more than 9 months ago and even took a class there once but so far I've only met one woman that I've seen outside of church. We are not friends though, she babysat for me once for a few hours so I could go to disaster relief training in Lexington and we've seen her at the grocery store once. So again, no friends.


I went to a christian retreat and really liked a few of the families, I liked them all but really felt that I could click with a few of them but that was a month ago and it doesn't look like any friendships are going to come from that weekend. I get it though. The families I met are busy busy families, wonderful dads and moms and fabulous kids.


I guess I wish I had someone to go to a coffee shop with, someone to talk to about happy things or sad things, just someone... I want to be someone that someone else wants to talk to. I don't just want someone to be my friend but I want to be someone elses friend.

Found this online... true but made me giggle... that had to take some guts or be a joke.

I have a few people that I'd call friends, people from my junior/senior high school days. Actually only two so is that a few, not really, I think that only counts as a couple. One of them I never ever see, never ever text or call and rarely speak on fb. He's my friend though because he feels like family. Another one I've known since we were like 2 or 3, I don't know for sure but I do know there is no memory of her NOT being in my life. We very rarely see each other, rarely ever talk, just recently started texting to each other, rarely talk on fb. She does live four hours away from me but even when she was only 2 hours away we didn't hang out. She became my legal sister our senior year of high school but that's a long story. The point is that she doesn't fill the void I feel that I have for a friend. She is super busy and I get that. She's a sister.

But if I want to call and chat with someone or just chat online because I've gotten to the point that I kind of hate talking on the phone, I don't feel like I have anyone.

I guess I'm feeling a little lonely tonight because I'm a little upset with my husband. He didn't do anything wrong really, he just doesn't like the person I am and that is upsetting. It was because I made a comment about a tattoo I'd want in the future. He hates tattoos but I don't, I love them. I have two. Yes to be honest only one of them mean anything to me, the other was a young and dumb thing but its a little heart & roses, not a big deal. I want probably 3 more. I don't understand why he can't be him and accept me for me... love me anyways. Oh well........ yes I know I am pathetic.......

The child chef

Johna made her daddy some spaghetti for dinner tonight.
Let me list all the ingredients she added to her noodles & water and see what you think:
pink food coloring, pumpkin pie spice, salt, pepper, sage, ground mustard, oregano, basil, Italian seasoning,
herbs de Provence, turmeric, smoked paprika, sugar, chicken rub, salt free Mrs dash, banana extract, coconut extract, vanilla extract and chili powder.


 I really shouldn't call it spaghetti because with those flavors, there was no need for sauce.
 
John took a bite like a good daddy. I said, "Oh look Johna, daddy likes it. He's gonna eat it all." lmbo
He got me back by saying that mommy wanted a taste. I tasted it and said it was soooooo good. So she wanted a taste. She liked it. She ate it. It was, ummm, different. The banana extract was very prominent. Plus something gave it a kick, maybe the chili powder.
 
I LOVE that she wanted to cook her daddy dinner though. She did it herself. It might not have been typical noodles but I was so proud of her!
 
It does make me wonder what kinds of odd concoctions other precious children have made that their parents actually ate....
 

Good (yeah right) Morning

I went to wake up my daughter and she smelled like cat urine. I'd like to say I was SHOCKED but I wasn't. I was annoyed because this makes the 4th or 5th time this has happened. We do not own a mean cat, he is not randomly urinating on people. The problem is that my daughter is OBSESSED with cats and she holds him until he has no choice, he either needs to potty or he is trying to defend himself. We recently had him fixed to try to fix the smell but no luck.

At this rate, especially since I am wasting time blogging, I am not sure we'll make it to church on time. I better get ready. So much for waking up early. :p

Addicted

I am addicted to the computer. I know this because what happened when I first woke up this morning annoyed me. What happened is that I got up, got on the computer and then about 10 minutes later my husband woke up and promptly told me that it was his turn. You see, HE is addicted to the computer too. He is mostly glued to World of Warcraft and I'm more fb & pinterest. I have a netbook that I use for school but the screen is not suitable for fb or pinterest so given the chance I'll use my husbands computer instead. I don't suppose I can say I'll give the computer up especially seeing that I am on a computer blogging right now, plus I'd be lying because it's a promise I know I would not keep. I do need to limit my computer though because I should not have been annoyed by his computer usage. Well not annoyed for having to get off his computer anyways, sometimes I'm annoyed because I think he uses his computer more in a day than he spends time with his family in a week, maybe even a month. BUT that's a different post altogether.

Just fyi: I am blessed and I do know it. My hubby might be a little less involved regularly than I would want but he is here and the kids KNOW he loves them. God blessed me with a husband that works super crazy hard for his family... 13 hour shifts, having to wake up at 4:30 in the morning. He is a great man!

4th of July

HAPPY 4th of JULY!!!!!

Social Worker

I plan to eventually be a social worker... just gotta finish college. :) Here are some images I've found online that I like that deal with SWK.

Sad statistic.

Blogging

I am terrible at blogging. I have 3 different ones which doesn't make any sense... just use one silly woman!!! Plus I go months without blogging which is terrible.... blog if ya gonna and don't if ya won't!!!!! Using this one seems to make more sense because I could easily combine the other two here. So I'll try blogging again. :) We'll see how it goes this time around.