Literal Video Version – Total Eclipse of the Heart

OMG!  I was laughing my butt off at this.  Gonna have to look and see if there are others out there on YouTube.  I was giggling all day thinking about this video.

Are you a sexy mom?

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I tend to say, err…  scream, “Oh God!” during intimate times with my honey.  It’s hard to explain what is going on inside my head during those moments because I’m…  well…  I’m enjoying the moment.  One day he asked me about my enthusiastic outburst and I had to stop and try to put a whole cosmos of feeling into mere words.  But to put it simply, it’s like a little prayer to God inside me that is bursting to come out.  It’s like saying, “Thank you God for this opportunity to be the woman you made me with the man that you gave me.”

Vanilla Extract and High Fructose Corn Syrup

At my last trip to the grocery store, I began my holiday preparations by checking out the baking goods.  Now, I know it’s a bit early for most people to begin thinking about Christmas, but I so enjoy cooking.

We almost have ALL high fructose corn syrup out of our diet.  I still buy bread because I haven’t gotten around to setting aside an entire day for bread baking.  But I thought I was doing really well on the HFCS elimination until I checked out the label on the vanilla bottles.  YIKES!  There it was, plain as day.  Granted, the amount of HFCS that we would injest from a teaspoon of vanilla mixed into a whole batch of brownies would be miniscule.  But that is not the point.  This just really brings home how pervasive HFCS really is.

So, I left the bottle of pure vanilla extract on the shelf and went home to do some investigating.  I found out just how easy it was to make my own vanilla extract.  I also discovered why vanilla extract costs so much!  Did you know that “Vanilla is an orchid that only grows within 20 degrees of the equator, it only blooms after 3 years, the flowers must be hand pollinated, the beans remain on the vine for 9 months, and then are soaked in the sun for weeks or months. Making extract from the beans adds months to the process.”

The recipe is really simple.  Vanilla beans and liquor.  Split the beans.  Put it all in a glass jar and let it soak for about 2 months.  Store in a cool dark place and shake it occasionally.  Vodka, rum, and brandy seem to be the most recommended.  I found the recipe here with a lot of great follow up comments.

Mazda MVP – The best minivan in the world

Something more to be thankful about…

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my minivan.  Which is saying a lot, because I never wanted to be a minivan driving momma.  But with four kids, well…  it’s illegal to stow any of them in the trunk or strap a few onto the roof…  so minivan it is.

At first I was totally geeked about getting a Nissan Quest.  I just had to have it.  I hated the Dodge Caravan.  I rented one several times to take my students to yearbook workshops.  That thing was soooo uncomfortable.  And it was a pain to go in reverse – the rear vision was totally crappy.  We looked at a ton of vans (my honey likes to shop around).  Then we saw it…  There it was, just another normal looking van.  Until we got inside and OMG!!!!  The rear windows roll down!  Like in a normal car.  No more suffocating in the back seat.  I was sold!  But not just that.  It’s comfortable, it drives nice, the rear visibility is very good, it holds 3 car seats and an enormous teenager with room for another passenger (it seats 7 total).  Now, I’m no engine buff…  so I’m not going to go into any details about genius engineering or anything like that.  But this is a VERY mommy friendly ride.

And did I mention that the back windows roll down!  Ah bliss.

100 degrees and finally dropping – living without an air conditioner

Oh my God!  We finally got our air conditioner running.  It needed to be recharged.  We weren’t planning on turning it on so soon in the year though, but this heat and humidity took us by storm.  Last year we didn’t even need to turn it on until the last week of summer, when we discovered it wasn’t working.  Grr.  What was the point in fixing the air conditioner when we were only going to need it for another week or two.  Last year we sweat it out.  But this year, it’s only June.  Now, I like it warm.  If I had my way the heater would be cranking it out to 85 degrees all winter long.  So I really wasn’t expecting to want to turn on the air until around August.  But yesterday as I was sitting there melting in my chair I turned to my Honey and said, “Let’s get the air conditioner running.” I couldn’t think, I couldn’t move, the kids were breaking out in heat rashes.  Humingbird even threw up yesterday morning because of the heat.   So we called up the guy and he came out today to put more of that wonderful toxic gas into it.  Now it’s a nice dry 83 degrees.  Ahhhh.  That’s better.

It is a bit of a conflict though.  On the one hand, I long to be able to stay away from such unnatural and unhealthy methods of living.  But on the other hand, we don’t live in a house that can allow for comfortable living without it.  This house was designed for air conditioning.  What is one to do other than move into a cave or something?  What are the options?

Just to Make You Smile :)