The 12 Days of... Kids

Things I found on the table when the Notary came over and needed to use it:

12 pages of sketches
11 half-finished thank you cards
10 pens & markers
9 magazines
8 used drinking glasses
7 new books
6 assorted coasters
5 parts of a dismantled flashlight
4 candy wrappers
3 sewing projects
2 empty chocolate boxes

And an iPod and a pair of ear buds!

And the beat goes...off

According to most research I've read, creating a habit takes 21 consecutive days.
21 consecutive days of me getting up and exercising, for example (and let us keep in mind that THAT is a purely hypothetical example), would mean that I am now in the habit of exercising daily.

It should follow then, that getting kids in the habit of waking up at a particular time, would take 21 consecutive days of waking them up at that time. After which they will be in the habit of waking up at said time, and will then consistently do so.

Anecdotally, however, my experience differs from the research; anecdotally my experience shows that it takes around 15 weeks (105 days) before the waking-up-on-time habit kicks in for school age children. In other words, just about the time that winter break rolls around, we've gotten in the habit of waking up on time.

This leads me to believe that circadian rhythms are not subject to the rules which govern habits.

The proof of this is weighed out when looking at the reverse: although the majority of research I've read on the subject agrees that it takes at least as long to BREAK a habit as it does to create one, it does not take 15 weeks for the kids to get out of the habit of waking up on time. It only takes one...day.

I LOVE the smell of tamales cooking!

Today was annual Tamale Making Day. I look forward to Tamale Day every year; it began, oh, around five years ago. A dear friend, who also happens to be a neighbor, invited me over because she had all the ingredients for tamale making, and no one to make tamales with (another friend who had been going to make tamales with her had had a change of plans).
We embarked on a tamale making adventure that day, neither of us ever having made tamales before, and what began as a rather haphazard experiment has become a day that is looked forward to by both families with at least as much anticipation as the holidays themselves.

Last year (Tamale Day 2008) we made nearly everything from scratch, including the masa, and our goal for this year (Tamale Day 2009) was to make everything but the chicken stock (used in the masa) from scratch.

We did it!

Ingredients:
Masa - harina (masa flour), butter, salt, shortening, and chicken stock
Chicken - 10 lbs, boiled in advance
Pork - 8 lbs, slow cooked overnight
Red Sauce - dried California chilies, garlic, cumin, salt, flour, olive oil
Green Sauce - tomatillos, jalapeno peppers, garlic, salt, cilantro, cumin, onions, oil (for sauteing)

We made:
Pork with Red Sauce Tamales
Chicken with Green Sauce Tamales
Cheese (Pepper Jack) and Jalapeno Pepper Tamales

And, just for fun, we looked up a recipe for Pineapple and Cinnamon Tamales, at the request of Dani's sister (she joined us this year), and Dani threw them together right at the end. We haven't tried them yet; we'll have to see what happens - we could add a new regular flavor.

All in all a good day, and the best part of it is enjoying the smell of the tamales cooking as I write this...yum!

Baking All Day!

Today was Baking Day. Baking Day isn't a holiday tradition (because I don't need that kind of pressure around the holidays), and, in fact, isn't a tradition at all. Baking Day is simply whatever day I designate (usually about a week in advance) to spend all day baking, and it happens whenever I have the required time, money and inclination--all at the same time.
Although it doesn't happen nearly as often as I believe I would like, the infrequency with which it occurs actually serves to make it that much more a luxurious indulgence, than an event that could otherwise become mundane, or worse, a dreaded obligation.

Monkey Boy joined me for the Baking extravaganza, and I enjoyed the chance to hang out with him all day as we baked.

On the queue for today were:
Rolled Sugar Cookies
Gingerbread
Snickerdoodles
Scones - many varieties of flavors, including, but not limited to: Cinnamon, Currant and traditional
On the Maybe queue: Gingerbread Men, and Chocolates

Managed all the cookies, the gingerbread and one batch of scones (cinnamon). However, for want of a sifter (and how is it that we no longer have a sifter, and I don't know about it? But, I digress...) we held off on the additional batches of scones, because they really do come out better when the flour has been sifted.

We ran out of time for working on the Maybes, but that is, after all, why they were on the Maybe queue!

Perhaps in the morning we will continue with the scones, as Amazing Husband and I ran out on a holiday related 'secret mission' this evening and included the purchase of a sifter in our otherwise Top Secret excursion.

Ahh, irony--what makest thou?

There was a debate among some of teenagers recently regarding what, exactly, constitutes irony.

I would like to clarify for all those who have any question: when we go to Lowe's and need them to cut a sheet of 4x8 plywood to size because the couple of bucks is worth not having to drag the table saw out at 8pm on a Sunday night, and they can't do it because their saw is broken, THAT's irony.

The Mama Cayman is RIDICULOUSLY exhausted!

Just how exhausted?
Well, I had the following is a conversation at 3:45pm today:
(Necessary backstory: the kids have been helping feed and walk their Nina Beatrice's puppies all this week)
Me: We are leaving now; the dogs are good.
Beatrice: Thanks for taking care of them.
Me: No problem. *digging through purse as I talk* Oh no, I think I left my phone in the house; it's not in my purse. Dang it, we just got the puppies settled, and now I am going to have to go back in and disturb them....
Beatrice: Oh, that's okay, just...
The Raven: Wait, you're ON your phone, talking to Nina Beatrice!
Me: *Face Palm*

Anecdote: Monkey Boy On Communication and Evolution

Driving home from Sam's Club, myself, MiL, and the boys in the car, all's quiet but for the oldies playing quietly on the radio and from the way back seat Monkey Boy ponders aloud: "Hmmm, the only reason humans evolved lips is because of our communication pattern." He went on to postulate on the subject, including a brief dissertation on the wide variety of animals who do NOT have lips, and still regularly survive in the wild, the only thing they lack being the more complex method of communication by which the human animal is distinguished.
His brother disagreed - although not as much in a passionate, science and observation based way, as in a 'here's an opportunity for an interesting debate' kind of a way - and the conversation became rather lively between them.
There was a rather heated tangent regarding whether the proof of Monkey Boy's theory was borne out by that fact that Disney has to add lips to animals that do not already possess them in its animated films, in order to make human speech visually plausible for them, but in the end a reluctant agreement was reached: mammals clearly require lips in order to nurse, however the rest of the animal kingdom appears to be getting along perfectly well without them, and the communication patterns of humans more likely evolved due the already extant lips, than the other way around.

Geek Offspring Major FAIL

Adventures with Teenagers

Discovered earlier this evening (among other interesting things!) that playing "I Never" with a group of teenagers when you are 35-plus years old means *never* winning.

World of Teenagers: Quote of the Week

"After this I am NEVER doing another load of laundry again for the rest of my life!" --Ender, upon being asked to help sort his dirty clothes in order to wash them.

An open letter to an inspiring friend--

Dear Fawndear,

I am happy and excited for you and all your progress toward your clutter-free goals!
I feel compelled to confess, though, that your ability to ignore clutter when doing the things you love and enjoy with your family has inspired me for many, many years.
I am the complete opposite regarding clutter. I was so obsessive about having a neat and clean house that I spent many a wasted day cleaning, picking up and doing laundry FIRST, and the enjoying myself by spending time with the kids SECOND, never happened. By the time I was done with all the things I had to do FIRST, SECOND became baths and bedtime, and if I was LUCKY, at least one of the kids would be awake long enough for me to read a chapter of a book with that one and then go off to bed myself.
Having been inspired by you, I now enjoy entire days of kid and mama time doing projects, reading, baking, watching movies and on and on, without a worry about the state of the house. And we are ALL the better for it.

In the long run I think a balance between spotlessly clean and hopelessly cluttered is the ideal, and I believe I have FINALLY found a path that will eventually get me there, however, I honestly never would have been able to do it without your example.

Thank you!

~The Mama Cayman aka Susan:)