YOU rise and YOU shine!

Because I so do NOT!

Name the movie my title is quoting....win a prize.  Ring the bell.  Push the button, Max!  That's from the movie too.  It is Bill's all time favorite movie.  At least in his top 3.  And it IS pretty funny stuff.  You should watch it if you haven't.  You'll have to read to the bottom to find the movie name.  I'm demanding like that sometimes.

Are you a morning person?  Do you burst forth from your bed all smiles and perkiness?  Do you get your best work done before 10am?  Yes? Really?  Are you sure?  Because I think you've been brainwashed into believing you're a lark.

Fact:   Statistically, only 10% of the population are truly early risers.  Which means most of us are getting bossed around by these chipper rays of sunshine.  And they have somehow convinced all of us that it is better to be up at the Crack Of Dawn. 

Most weekdays I pry myself out of bed at the unmentionable hour of 5am.  I am not proud of this fact.  I am doing a disservice to all night owls.  I know and I apologize. 

I do this for the sake of my two oldest children.  Because, despite being trained since diaperhood of the evils of their very own father's early rising tendencies, they have willingly chained themselves and thus ME, to the public school starting hour of 7:45am.  If  I want to be the kind of mother who makes breakfasts and lunches and drives people around without incident at 7:20am, I have to get up while it's dark out.  That's the cold, ugly truth.

But there are requirements  I need Primo Joe.  2 cups.  Really hot and totally bionic.  I need a muffin.  And slightly under 2 hours of indulgent TV.  

That would be:  Peet's Coffee brewed nice and strong, ready and willing at 5am.
                         2 episodes of Mad Men (I've finished up my 7 year stretch with Nancy Botwin)
                         A Morning Glory Muffin.
                         A blankie.

So if you are like me, and require daily bribing to leave the snugly comfort of your fabulously more-perfect-in-the-morning-than-any-other-time-of-day bed, these muffins might make things a little less horrible at 5am.

I found this recipe on the world wide web and then of course substituted all the stuff I had for all the stuff I didn't have....and for healthy muffins they came out AWESOME!  So I'm thinking it's a pretty forgiving recipe and you can change it up even more depending on what is lurking in your pantry.

You will need -
18 muffin (cupcake) liners 
cooking spray
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup regular oats (I subbed quick oats because I had some left from another recipe and we don't like the quick ones for breakfast)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 Tbs. wheat bran (I subbed wheat germ because oddly I had some stashed in the garage fridge)
2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup plain fat-free yogurt (we had low-fat)
1 cup mashed ripe banana - about 2 bananas
1 large egg
1 cup chopped pitted dates (I subbed chopped prunes, we had them, don't ask)
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup dried pineapple (I actually bought these)
3 Tbs. ground flax seed - about 2 Tbs. whole (I totally skipped this, didn't have any and don't know where it lives at my grocery)

Preheat your oven to 350F

Place 18 muffin cup liners in muffin tins, coat liners with cooking spray.  Before baking if any of the muffin tins are left empty fill them 1/3 to 1/2 full of water so your muffins don't dry out.

Combine flours through salt in a large bowl and stir with a whisk.  Make a well in the center of the mixture.

In a separate bowl, combine the yogurt, banana and egg.  Add to the flour, stirring just until moist.  Fold in the dates, walnuts and pineapple (or your subs).  Spoon the batter into the lined muffin tins.  If you randomly had flax seed, sprinkle that on top of the muffins.  

Bake for 20 min.  Muffins are done when they spring back when lightly touched in the center.  Remove muffins immediately and cool on a wire rack.

Set your coffee maker for 4:45am.  Set your alarm for 5am.  Drag yourself out of bed, grab your blankie and shuffle to the kitchen.  Get your coffee and muffin, settle in on your sofa and watch, bleary eyed, 2 episodes of Men Behaving Badly Mad Men.

Then get on Netflix and request The Great Race so you can enjoy the antics of  Jack Lemmon, Natalie Wood and Tony Curtis being directed by Blake Edwards.

xoxo

~S

IT's....midnight?!

Around 2 and a half hours ago I had the sensible thought that I should get off this box and go to bed. 

Clearly the sensible, likes pain free mornings, half of me is not in charge.  Because it's 12:02 A-freaking-M!  It's really going to suck in about 6 hours when I have to get up.

I wish I could say I did something useful.

But I didn't. 

Just please let there be bionic coffee brewing when I get up...

ZZZZZZZZZZZ

~Sherri

Well we saved her life...

...by showing up on time but you won't hear that sh-- on the news.

In my 44 years I've had friends, neighbors, parents of friends, speeding ticket issuers, etc. who also happen to be in law enforcement.  They are good, funny, hard working people (even the ones who've given me speeding tickets, because yes I was doing 55 in that 35 mph zone), who pretty much never get a big thank  you unless they get killed on the job.  It's just the way it is.  Wrong.  But true. 

Today my blog is a BIG HUGE THANK YOU!  And I'll tell you why.

Yesterday, while most of us were having a Tuesday, my friend (hi Judy!) was having her Monday.  It was a shiny new workweek, full of possibilities.  She's a police officer, and so in the last 20 years has seen and done all of things most of us hope never to have to see, touch, smell or fight off.  I've known her since we sat next to each other in 7th grade band.  She played the oboe and I was usually last chair clarinet.  I say usually because every once in awhile I would forget how much more fun it was to be last chair, goofing off with Judy, and accidentally practice a lot and get moved up to like, second chair.  At which time I would promptly quit practicing so I could be demoted back to last chair again.  Even then Judy had a scowl that could convince the Swanson brothers to let me out of the band locker they had put me in.  My kids, of course, think she's cool because she's always packin' heat and even without her field weapon could take even my 6 foot football player down.  Judy is the polar opposite of their mama and sometimes I think I should take some kick ass classes from her so I could get a little more respect around this joint.

But back to yesterday.  She and her fellow officers found a homeless woman on a mattress, in a field.  The woman was covered with ants and had foam coming out of her nose...still alive.  Because they showed up in time, they saved this woman's life!  Yet in Judy's own words...you won't see that sh-- on the news.  And it's a shame.

We get to hear all the bad stuff all the time.  And sure, there's a enough yuck to fill up an hour long news cast several times a day.  But I know there's also enough good stuff that could too.  Find the good news.  It's everywhere, lurking, waiting to make you smile!

So I humbly offer up my little blog, with it's tiny readership, to say THANK YOU  to Judy and all my other law enforcement peeps!!! 

xoxo,
~S 

High School Redo

I can now say with certainty that nobody should be really concerned with what they may have missed academically in high school. You will have plenty of opportunity to go over it again. And again and again. With each and every child you help with homework. For instance do you know what Golgi bodies are? Turns out I missed that in 1980 when I was a freshman. I missed it again a couple years ago when my oldest was a freshman and we were staying up late doing science definitions. But tonight, on round 3 of freshman science, I can confidently tell you that, a - they're a real, as in not made up, thing and b - they have something to do with cells. I can also confidently tell you that I have successfully gone through my adult life never once needing to know what a Golgi body is.



So high schoolers, enjoy your high school days. Don't wear yourself out because you can't remember every possible little piece of (mostly useless) information they are trying to cram into your head. Develop some people skills. A work ethic. Be a self motivated starter, a thinker, a solver of problems. Learn to respect a deadline, however ridiculous it may seem. These skills you will use every single day of your life. Your bosses will live you for it. And if you turn out to be a small business owner? Even better.

All that other random info you are being exposed to? It's important in that you need to figure out what piques your interest. That's the stuff you'll remember, study in depth in college, and, if you're fortunate, is what your career will center around. But Golgi bodies...unless it turns out that science, specifically, Golgi related science, rocks your world...don't stress about it.

Xoxo,
~Sherri,
Who still thinks the public school system could use a major overhaul but doesn't have any great ideas as to how to fix it.

Olives and itches.

Hello blog fam...I'm trying to do this from my handy iPhone. Because I don't yet own a laptop. You see my technology MO is one of total and complete rejection. All up until I Can Not Live without whatever the thing is. So I desperately absolutely completely need a laptop. In the same way I woke up one morning and HAD to have an flatscreen tv. But I digress.

Last night I smelled like a pasta dish. And I itched. Well to be exact, my arms itched. Nope they aren't in casts. I HAVE A RASH. Who, at 44, gets a rash?! Well, if you have recently tried a new body gel oil, which is what I'm squarely placing the rash blame on, and only your arm skin has a reaction to, you might just get a rash. So you might also be desperate enough to google home rash remedies because it's 11pm and You Are Desperate. And you will find several websites that tout the magical skin healing properties of olive oil. So you'll raid the kitchen pantry, slather olive oil on your rashy arms...and wait for relief.

But you'll wait in vain and just get hungry because it turns out that olive oil is not magical on your particular rash. So here I am, still itchy, wishing something would make it go away!

Love you to the moon and back,
~S

Black Swan and Watermelons

Whew,  we started off last week with a Monday morning trip to the ER and all of a sudden it's a week and half later.  It goes like that around here sometimes.  I try to surrender to the chaos.   It feels good to be in the middle of next week. 

Hallucinations.  Ever had one?  Me?  Nope.  At least not that they're telling me about.  


Spoiler Alert:  If you have not watched Black Swan, as I hadn't 24 hours ago, and it really bugs you when you know anything at all about a movie, then skip on down to the yummy eating part below.  I don't usually mind a spoiler...and really, for Country Strong, I would have greatly appreciated one.  Even though I saw the ending coming.  I kept holding out hope.  Ugh.

I have, however, had courtside seats while somebody else hallucinated, and I can assure you, that person's hallucination is very real to them.  And pretty freaky for the guy sitting next to them.   So this morning, I had about 47 THOUSAND loads of laundry to do and I finally popped in the Black Swan DVD that Netflix is probably about to thank me for keeping it and charging me $60 because that's how long I've had it.

Why the delay?  Partly because I knew it was dark.  Partly because I'm not a huge Natalie Portman fan.  Partly because school started a month ago too early, and I've been busy signing school forms and buying endless school supplies.  Partly because my husband had no desire to watch it with me.  And it was on Blu Ray so I had to watch in the living room, when the prims were otherwise occupied.  Partly because I'm not eagerly awaiting anything else from Netlix.  It's an extensive list.

But this morning I ran out of reasons, and was completely, utterly, mesmerized.  The layers with Swan Lake, the ballet, the descent into madness, the wondering if something was indeed real or a hallucination, and yeah, they leave you hanging on a couple.  Which usually I detest, but not this time.  Nat deserved her Oscar, and you should watch this film, even if she kind of bugs you too.

Then you should, because you purchased ANOTHER ho-hum watermelon and it's Mexico hot and humid outside, make this Watermelon Granita.  It's from Pioneer Woman, and if you haven't yet checked out her blog/website, and all her recipes, you should.  We've pretty much liked all of them we've tried.  And we've tried a LOT of them.  But back to the Watermelon Granita,

You need about 8 cups cubed watermelon (that's about 1/2 a largish one), 2 whole limes-juiced, and 1/3 cup sugar.  Put half of each ingredient in your blender and blend until smooth (it really can make something besides smoothies and margaritas).  Pour into a 9 x 13 dish.  Do the other half - we don't want it to feel left out.  Put it in the freezer and go watch Black Swan for 2 or 3 hours.  Scrape the top, frozen layer with a fork.  Keep doing this until it's all frozen and is pretty much a dry slushy.

Sneak off to your bedroom, with the whole dish and a spoon and eat all of it while you watch Nat dance into crazy town one more time.  Or share it with your family.  I'm not sure how it's going to go down here.

XOXO

~S

1. It feels like Wednesday.

2.  I'm having the skinny woman's breakfast of coffee and low-fat cottage cheese.  If this was the 70's I'd be smoking cigarettes too.  I really miss the 70's.  Just because my family really didn't participate the first time around.  The 60's lived on until the 80's in our household.

3.  My beagle is unable to take a walk without producing something I'm required to pick up.  No matter how many times he has been to the backyard before our walk.  Why, Charlie, why???

4.  I love the hot mess that is the Nancy Botwin character on Weeds. 

5.  You have to love a man who brings his own crazy to the table and it just so happens to compliment yours.  Namely, your crazy didn't scare him away.

6.  I painted my nails black two days ago, and it's still summer, so it's all wrong, but I've been too lazy to remove it.

7.  Last night I made Cuppa Cuppa Cuppa Cake.  Yes, Truvi's recipe from Steel Magnolias.  All the sugar hounds in the household pounced on it.  Me...there's no chocolate involved so that's a problem.  You can find it on PW's website if you're so inclined.

8.  No, I haven't been drinking this morning, why do you ask?

9.  I really need a haircut.

xxoo,
~S

Stick 'em in or take 'em out?

This is my favorite rescue hat that the hubby put in the Goodwill bag because it was his to get rid of causing me to say to him in horror..."What?!  You can't get rid of that!  I wear it ALL the time!"  Then I snatched it right out of the Goodwill bag and put it in the closet on my side.  But what I can never decide is this -

Ears IN or OUT???

Yes, these are exactly the kind of things that keep me up at  night.  So, how do you wear yours?

Pondering life's really small issues today,

~S

The News, Jersey Shore's Situation and I

What's your favorite part of the newspaper? 

Mine, hands down, is The Back Page.  It's where a cool photo is surrounded by paragraph long news stories.  I can find out nobody likes Casey Anthony, that the miners were freed from the collapsed mine and that Heather Locklear is now engaged to Jack Wagner.  That's enough for me.  I'm not so much interested in the latest shooting in LA, which politician is embroiled in a scandalous twitter photos or anything that's happened very far away from me.  Yes, world news is important and affects us all, but that stuff leaks in whether I want it to or not, so I don't really need to seek it out in my morning paper.

But what I LOVE are the stories of idiot criminals featured almost exclusively on The Back Page.  You know....the guys who broke into a police van to take gag photos of themselves being arrested.  And then managed to lock themselves in.  Since their other idiot friend who came to rescue them couldn't break into the van despite their previously successful instructions as to how, had to call 911.  Uh huh, as soon as they were rescued by the responding officers, they were officially arrested.  Guess they didn't need those gag photos after all.

If it happens to be a Sunday when I come across a little laugh out loud gem like that, and Bill and I are sitting on the back porch having our coffee and reading the paper together, I absolutely interupt whatever important article he's reading to subject him to a read aloud of the story.  I don't think he always loves this, but I figure it's good for him to gain a little perspective.  If we have idiots here, so do the bad guys over there.  Of course theirs usually have a bomb strapped to their chests.

My favorite news story today...Abercrombie and Fitch offering The Situation of Jersey Shore fame thousands of dollars to stop wearing their clothes because it's bad for the company's image.  BA HA HA HA HA!
Awww who wouldn't want that associated with their product?!  Hey Bill, listen to this one...

Have a fab day everyone!
~S