You know you are grown up when...

Last month's Real Simple magazine asked "when did you know you were a grown up?" I can't say that I can pinpoint a moment when I knew I was, but I can pinpoint a moment when I knew I wasn't.
I was 16 or 17 and full of myself as 16 year old teenage girls are. I was washing dishes with my mom and I announced that I thought I might like to move out on my own. I had an after school job and I thought I was ready for more freedom. Mom didn't answer my question directly, instead she waited until the I let the dishwater out of the sink. I made a face about the food bits left in the drain plug and told her she could rinse the sink. Mom simply said "you know when you have your own place, you'll have to empty your own drain plug and wipe out your own sink." Eureka! The voice inside my head screamed "stay here, stay here FOREVER; that is GROSS!" So, enough said. I made no more noise about moving anywhere until I went off to school. I was not a grown up.

If I had to define when I realized I was a grown up I couldn't do it. I think you are a grown up when you don't bemoan the drama of life. You just do what needs to be done and get on with it. Childhood and Adolescence are all about drama, real or imagined. When you are a "grown up" you see past the drama that is usually self-centred and focus on what is happening around you. Being grown up means being grateful, and being aware of everyone else in your life. I don't know when that hit me, sometimes I wish it hadn't -- there is great responsibility with the "grown up" title. I wish I new that BEFORE it was me.

menu planning monday (on Tuesday)

The usual menu plan sponsored by orgjunkie.com
Monday -- hidden bean chili* and fried potatoes
Tuesday -- chicken burgers
Wednesday -- meet the teacher night at school, dinner there
Thursday -- Crock Pot Maggie soup
Friday -- Tacos
Saturday -- DS is away, so we'll treat DD out

*Hidden bean chili explanation: One of the great things about chili is the beans -- they're loaded with fibre and good for you. My family doesn't like them though. So, sneaky me, I use my food chopper and chop up canned kidney and navy beans and add them to the chili. When they're all chopped up they look like hamburger and you can't tell they're in there. They regularly tell me they like my chili better than anyone else's 'cause mine doesn't have "yucky beans." I just smile 'cause what they don't know is good for them!
This is a trick I use for many recipes -- you can hide flax seed meal in almost anything. Also carrot or sweet potato puree works well in meatloaf and spaghetti sauce. I put mushrooms in my spaghetti sauce (though all 3 claim they've never eaten a mushroom!)

i'm not a redneck

DH took the kids to the Outdoor Farm Show last week. They took my dad with them. Great bonding opportunity...
Except -- they came home with a manure spreader and antique tractor. It was a good deal, I'm told. They bought the spreader and got the tractor free. You can imagine then, how great the tractor is. The thing is about a the "good deal" is that it may have been a good deal for someone who had, say, manure to spread, or acreage to put it on. We have neither. What we now have is an odd lawn ornament. It's like one of those pathetic emails that come around with the subject "you know you're a redneck when..."
'Cause you know you are a redneck when you have a *&%$ spreader in your driveway AND YOU LIVE IN TOWN! All I need to do now is plant flowers in it. Then I'll undo my top button, and suck back a cold one whilst sitting on a lawnchair, resting my feet on the tractor tire, and burping the alphabet.

deep thoughts

I'm reading a brand new "feel good" book that Library Lynn recommended. It's a novel by Claire Cook called the Wildwater Walking Club. It's about 4 ordinary ladies who connect as they meet on their daily walks. The walking becomes a daily ritual they look forward to in their lives. It's a quick, happy read.
In it one of the characters says " Sometimes you only get one good minute a day...You just have to make the most of it." This thought has stuck with me for 2 busy days, so I think that makes it "blog worthy." I have had the best sleeps the last two nights because I've drifted off thinking about how blessed I am that I can honestly say that I have many, many good minutes in that day; and when I recount them I get a great feeling of peace. I'm waiting for the day (and it will come) when I'll feel like I've only had one good minute -- and then I'll try to be thankful for that, and I'll try to make the most of it.

menu planning monday

The usual menu plan as organized by orgjunkie.com/

Monday -- One-Pan Roasted Pork Supper ( recipe below)
Tuesday -- I'm at a meeting, DH, DD and DS will have to fend for themselves
Wednesday -- leftover potato soup with cheese bread and a salad
Thursday -- ham steaks with scalloped potatoes
Friday -- Chili and homemade fries
Saturday -- we'll be at the local fair all day, so supper will likely come from a booth there....

One-Pan Roasted Pork Supper
(this is a new one from a Kraft What's Cooking magazine. It's going into the Favourites book!)

1 pound potatoes (or sweet potatoes) peeled and cubed
1 large red onion, cut into wedges
1/2 cup Kraft Catalina dressing
1 1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves, divided
1 pkg Stove Top Stuffing for Chicken
1 1/2 cups water
2 small pork tenderloins (~ 1 1/2 pounds)

Preheat over to 375F. Toss potatoes and onions with dressing and 1/2 tsp of the thyme. Arrange in greased 9 x 13 inch pan. Bake 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine stuffing mix with water. Cut each tenderloin diagonally into thirds. Push vegetable mixture to edges of pan. Spoon stuffing down the centre of the pan; top with meat. Sprinkle remaining 1 tsp of thyme over meat.

Bake 45-50 min or until cooked through.

note: I think next time I make this I may put about 1/4 cup Catalina over the meat and thyme part way through cooking, just to make a bit more sauce for the pork.

undergarments

I don't hang my undies on the clothesline to dry.
I am all for conserving energy -- and use the clothesline in good weather for just about everything else, but I don't hang my underwear out.
This has nothing to do with modesty and everything to do with competition. A competition that is likely only in my head, and one that I can't win. My neighbour (I won't say who) has really nice gitch, and she hangs it on the line. This is the kind of underwear that I only see in movies and at La Vie En Rose. You know, coral and peach, pink, black, stripey blue, all matching bras and panties. I don't own that much underwear, and I'm lucky that mine's clean, never mind all matchy-matchy.
So, I don't hang mine out. The world can just imagine that mine's too nice, too delicate, to expose to the elements.

perfect mate?

DH and I recently had our 17th wedding anniversary, but we've been together for more than 20 years. We had a conversation recently about "perfect mates." The crux of the conversation being the question of whether great partnerships are just natural-soul-mates-finding-each-other or is every pairing hard work. No great wisdom came of that conversation.

BUT, DH did tell me that if I only fixed qualities A and B, then I'd be perfect. ( I won't name or describe these character traits or you will discover my flaws too). The surprise to me was not the naming of the flaws -- I know I don't possess A or B, nor the desire to acquire them (no they are not breasts!) -- the surprise was that there were only 2 items on DH's perfect mate list.
My response to DH's comment about my lack of A and B was that it was a good thing I lacked such qualities, otherwise I may not be able to put up with his lack of A to Z.... (Good thing sense of humour is one of the qualities I most admire about the man.)