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Right before bedtime…
…when you’ve told your four and six year old sons to go pee. Be sure to specify that they do so in different bathrooms.
Otherwise you might just pass the open bathroom doorway, see two naked boy bottoms facing you and hear laughter from them over the fact that their streams are crossing.
Boys.
Can’t make up my mind
Yesterday I went and saw the dentist again. He told me we would be taking care of a small restoration. I asked him how small it was, how deep he would need to drill and how long it would take for him to complete the process. To what did these questions turn, you ask? Why to my hair brained idea that maybe I wanted to go without local anesthetic of course.
You see, me and anesthetic don’t mix. They shoot me with the stuff and my heart races and I feel so icky and panicky the whole time. And then my lip is fat for hours afterward and my face itches but I can’t feel myself scratching, etc. I honestly hate the feeling of local anesthesia more than being in labor.
So I told him to start drilling and we would see how it went. Yes, I am completely nuts I think. But he drilled as far as he needed to, going slowly and the pain was minimal. It just made me jump at times it was so sudden and cold. But it really wasn’t bad. When he had finished prepping me for the filling I was very proud of myself. I figured I had weathered the worst, oh naive dental patient that I am.
But then he told me he was going to have to put this metal thing between my teeth up next to my gums. He slid it up there and it pinched my gums and right away it hurt worse than the drilling had. But though the pain was intense it was fleeting once the thing was secured. Then he told me he was going to have to drive a tiny wedge between my teeth. He showed me this little blue thing that looked like it had been carved out of a toothpick. No problem right. Wrong!
He started to push it in, and Holy %$#*&*&#$ %$&*@&%*$!
I’ve never passed out, I don’t know what it feels like, but I thought I might do it. He saw me arching my back and drove it in real quick. I felt all warm and woozy with pain for a moment but then it started dulling and I thought I could keep going. Then he had to stretch a rubber dam over everything and that tugged on the metal thing pinching my gums again and it really really really really hurt. But I had come this far without local anesthetic and I was NOT GIVING IN. Finally it was time to fill the tooth and that didn’t bug me at all. Then he removed all the crap killing my gums and the pain was pretty much gone right away. And I was smiling. Because I didn’t have a numb face.
Will I do it again? I can’t decide. I am leaning towards not, however. I must choose the lesser of two evils and now I’m thinking it’s the anesthesia. Maybe it doesn’t always work on my teeth but it’s definitely always worked on my gums, which is where the real pain is people. Trust me.
E is for Excellent
Tiff over at Three Ring Circus thinks my blog is Excellent. If there is one award I have truly been coveting it was this one. Possibly because it relates to video games which, if you’ve read my blog for long you know I love my SNES and PS2! Still wishing for that Wii…anybody? Anybody?
Ahem!
So thank you very much Tiff and I’m going to pass this along to:
Kenna at Shrek + Fiona
Ree at Ree Writes
and
Marie over at Memarie Lane
They’re not the only excellent bloggers I read but I thought I would spotlight them. Happy President’s Day everyone!
Calling all Maple lovers
On Saturday, hubby and I took the kids up to our local nature center to learn about maple tapping and maple syrup making, as part of their annual Maple Sugaring Festival. I’m a huge fan of anything maple (excepting nasty fake maple syrup, once you’ve had the real thing you’ll never go back) and maybe someday when I’m rich I’ll own some maples, tap my own trees and make my own syrup because I’m weird and like to do things the old fashioned way like that.
We went on a little tour through the woods, where our guide showed us the basics of tapping a tree. First you need to make a Spile. You carve the end of a branch of wood with a soft pith (soft center) down to almost a point but not quite, shaving off the bark until it starts to turn yellow. Then you clear out the pith. Our guide just used a coat hanger that had been fashioned into a pusher outer sort of thingie (real descriptive, I know) and she shoved a hole through the branch, creating the Spile. Then, with a 7/16 inch drill bit, you drill a hole about two inches into the tree, put the Spile in and hammer it lightly until it is snuggly in place. Don’t hammer too hard or you might split the tree. Then you can hang your bucket on the Spile and the sap will drip into the bucket Here is a picture of the Spile our guide made and stuck in the Box Elder.
Maple tapping usually takes place in mid to late February or early March depending on where you live. Prime weather for tapping would be a freezing cold night followed by a day of at least 40 degree weather. This is because the tree sucks up tons of nutrients before the night freeze, storing up in case the freeze will be a while. But then the next day proves to be warm and so the tree doesn’t need to hold all of that in reserve and it flows back out as sap.
An interesting thing about the sap or sugar as it can be called is that it doesn’t freeze. Below is a picture of the watery part of the sap that has frozen. It’s hard to see but there is liquid in there and that is the sugar. So the guide just took the ice out and tossed it onto the ground and poured the liquid part into her collection jug.
Besides the tapping demonstration we also got to see how maple syrup is made. It takes a ton of sap to make just a little maple syrup. Pictured below are how many gallons of sap it takes to make just one gallon of maple syrup. There are forty five gallon jugs there.
We saw a modern evaporator used to make maple syrup
We also saw demonstrations of old school methods used for making maple syrup. This kid was using an early nineteenth century evaporator.
Over here we’ve got our trusty witches kettle.
This one is my favorite. Native American’s created this method of evaporation.
The wooden vat is filled with maple sap. Behind it is a fire in which the demonstrator has placed some large rocks. Once the rocks are sufficiently hot, he uses his wooden tongs to remove a rock and place it into the vat of sap. The liquid starts boiling and evaporating instantly. He keeps rotating the rocks like that until the sap has boiled down into syrup.
The liquid in the jug below is Maple Sap straight from the tree. We got to taste it and it pretty much tastes like sugar water. No hint of that delicious maple flavor in the sap. But somewhere in the evaporation process that flavor comes out. We also tasted fresh made maple syrup which is always divine. Another demonstrator carried around a jar of dirt, giving people granules to taste. Well, ok, so it wasn’t dirt. It was maple sugar but it looked like dirt. It didn’t taste like dirt though. It was delicious.
Our guide also told us that you can tap and make syrup from any type of tree. Though of course flavor will vary. She told us she wasn’t so keen on Black Walnut syrup, which is a bit tart for her tastes. Anyhow, I think I need to go make me something maple-y. Mmmmm.
Hersheys for Valentine’s Day
Why not? If you live close enough, February 14th is a great day to visit Chocolate World. You can pick up a last minute gift for that special someone…
and the lines for the chocolate making tour are non existent.
The kiddos get to pretend they are chocolate makers.
But mostly, we just went for the singing cows.
Was this an omen?
I haven’t cooked dinner in two months. TWO MONTHS!! The glorious hubby that is mine has made dinner for us nearly every single night since December. He comes home and his creative juices spark in the kitchen. I’m mostly serious when I tell him he needs to try out for The Next Food Network Star. He is really good at cooking. He never uses a recipe, and he rarely makes the same thing twice. And I? I get to sit back and inhale the aroma wafting into the living room. I get to spend all of 2 minutes setting the table. I get to plunge my fork into a tender pork roll, or a tangy stir fry or a crusted halibut. The meal made even tastier by the fact that I didn’t spend any time making it.
Tonight, for the first time in a long time though, I made dinner. Hubby asked me to make one of our favorite casserole’s and I did. I know the recipe by heart, it’s easy and tasty and quick. As I sat down to this first of dinner’s I had made in so long a time, I placed a forkful of casserole into my mouth…
…and gagged.
It tasted awful. My oldest son who usually loves this meal said in a very matter of fact tone, “Dis tastes really bad!”
At first I thought I had lost my ability to even follow a recipe correctly. Thoughts of, “I’m not a bad cook!” “I follow recipes well and make many tasty things!” “I’ve never made anything gross in my life unless it started with gross ingredients!” flew through my head.
Then I remembered. I remembered that I had used a different brand of Cream of Chicken soup. A new brand. A cheap brand. I went and smelled the can, tasted a little bit on the rim.
YUCK!!!!
It wasn’t me. It was just some really bad tasting Cream of Chicken Soup that made the difference. All was well again. But I’ll take it as an omen anyway. As long as he loves to do it, I’ll leave the cooking to my husband.
Mommy Brain
The Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of Mommy Brain announced its latest guidelines just yesterday, stating that “Not all Mommy Brain, is the same.”
This is only the first of hopefully many steps that will be taken to help treat Mommy Brain, which was officially diagnosed last Monday. But mothers have felt the symptoms and their families have experienced the effects of Mommy Brain for centuries.
“I knew something was different right after we came home from the hospital,” said Iam Spacey of the moment in which she put a soiled diaper in the laundry basket and the babies onesie in the trash.
“I knew something was wrong when I opened my lunch at work one day and found fruit roll ups and Lunchables inside,” said one tearful husband. “I mean, if you think I was devastated, consider our poor son who opened up his lunch at school to find a Turkey wrap and tomato juice. Our son doesn’t eat that kind of stuff. The poor kid came home starving!”
Others have reported similar experiences ranging from simple things like finding the milk in the cupboard and the cereal in the fridge to more serious events like the one that happened to Anita Nadvil of Orem Utah.
“All I wanted to do was be a good mom!” wailed Anita as she recounted the scary experience. “I was just trying to sanitize the binkies! I never would have forgotten about them if I didn’t have Mommy Brain!”
But Anita Nadvil did forget about the boiling binkies. When she emerged from the babies bedroom after a diaper change, the house was filled with haze and smelled of melting plastic. Luckily, quick thinking prevented disaster. She turned off the burner, then escorted her two children out of the house until the toxic fumes cleared out.
Yes Mommy Brain seems to be running rampant these days. For those who have already had children, there is no prevention. Some form of Mommy brain exists in all Mommy’s. Some women have decided not to have children in hopes of avoiding the condition, though this won’t guarantee against similar conditions arising. Even the most healthy of non-child bearing women come down with cases of absent mindedness or worse.
For victims of Mommy Brain there is no cure, but a good support network and a strong resolve can make a world of difference.
“I write notes to myself all the time,” says Anita Postit of Portland Oregon. “Like if I have to pay rent by a certain date, I stick a note saying so on my desk. Otherwise I forget.”
For some women, even that is not enough. One mother, wishing to stay anonymous because of the severity of her condition reports that she has to tape her rent or video rentals to the door in order to remember them before she goes out.
In spite of the differences in progression of Mommy Brain in all of the women mentioned in this article, they share one common thread - A good support system. Husbands who tease them and help them laugh at their Mommy Brain moments. Mother’s who sympathize and offer suggestions. Children who love them no matter what Mommy Brain moment they have next.
Of course not all victims of Mommy Brain have a good support system in their home and community, but more and more of them are finding support in an online community of mommy bloggers. These mommy bloggers are mother’s who are willing to share their Mommy Brain moments in order to help others going through the same thing to feel they are not alone. It has become a lifeline to some with severe cases.
“Reading stories from other Mommy Brain victims on the blogs is so great!” says Imjus Truthful. “It’s therapeutic to be able to laugh at the stories of mom’s who have it worse than you do.”
If you’d like to learn more about Mommy Brain you can visit the official website at: http://mommybrainvictimsrus.com
If you would like to donate to research for treatments and a cure for Mommy Brain call:
1-800-BRAINLS
Together, we can make great strides in helping victims of Mommy Brain around the world.
