Commenting on Blogger Blogs

I, as well as a number of people I know, have been having trouble commenting on Blogger Blogs, so I figured I'd post what I found to help...

I was able to type a comment, but then it would send me to sign in, and then do the letter authenticator, and then i'd be back at the sign-in page, thus starting a continuous loop.  Using my dear friend google, I found a few tips.  What worked for me was either deleting my cookies, or un-checking the "remember me" option when signing in.  For some reason it worked.  Who am I to wonder why?

You're so vain, you probably think this blog is about you.

I had a terrible night.  Boy needed to be fed, Girl had an accident, and I can't let things go. 

I have trouble sleeping when I feel hurt.  I tend to lie awake, composing my feelings into well-worded responses that will likely never be used.  Really, I just need to figure out how to let it go. 

I read once that being angry with someone is kind of like drinking poison and waiting for them to die.  I'm not angry (anymore) but I think that feeling hurt is very much the same.  It makes no sense to lie awake at night feeling bad if it's not going to do anything but make you tired in the morning (let me tell you, I'm beat).

Unfortunately I've been dealing with this inside my head for too long.  I am way past the point where I should have just washed my hands and moved on. 

I'm not the kind of person who has a lot of friends...  and they have changed over many times, but the changes that are the toughest to deal with are the ones you have no control over.   For me, they have always coincided with major life changes (and not the bad ones).  I had a group of friends when I was single and dating Husband (Boyfriend at the time), and when we chose to get married, suddenly, we had no friends.  It happened to fast, I didn't really get it right away, but almost instantly, their lives carried on without us.  We stopped being invited out, and rarely saw each other again.   The same thing happened when Husband and I got pregnant.  (Perhaps this is why most of the people I consider my closest friends are also my family.  Their unwavering love and support through all my life changes is a blessing)

I can try to understand, and justify it to myself.  I can give myself (and you) all sorts of reasons that make sense logically.  People need to relate to each other...  maybe in order to have a friend, you both must be in the same stage of life. 

I'd have to do a lot of lying to myself to make me believe it though.

It might take slightly more work to relate and continue a relationship, and I thought that it was worth the extra effort, but unfortunately, it was one-sided.  That hurts.  It's tough when you realize that you value a person and a relationship more than someone else.  It feels like the time and effort and love you invested was worthless, or at least, not worth enough. 

I need to remind myself of those who love me no matter what shape I'm in, how many kids I have, or where I am in life.  They are there.  I need to be happy in the decisions I made, and not let them be clouded by hurt feelings.

I don't want my sunshine to have a shadow.  I need to let it go.

I heart thunderstorms.

There is something about a good thunderstorm.  It rattles the house and makes you jump.  There is one happening outside right now.  It's not as crazy or loud as I'd prefer, (and it's coming on a somewhat inconvenient day... sorry Audrey) but it makes me happy.  We haven't had a good storm yet this year, and let me tell you, I've been waiting. 

I put Girl to bed for her nap around the time the dark clouds started rolling in, and I could still hear her awake when the rumbling started.  A tiny niggling fear in me thought "I should go tell her thunderstorms are not something to be afraid of".  I do that now and then.  I assume she'll be scared and then have to stop myself from telling her everything is ok. 

*Pause to run outside and put blankets on the one un-insured car on the driveway.  Husband called and said they were getting big hail where he was.  He has all the fun*

Before Girl was born, I knocked off some stuffed monsters for her (there was no way I was paying $40 for something I could make myself in an hour).  I have always told her they were monsters.  My mother-in-law heard me say that once and was shocked.  "Why do you tell her they are monsters?!  Children are AFRAID of monsters."

Ok lady.  Monsters don't exist.  If Girl wants to think a monster is a cuddly, colourful toy, why would I prevent that?

Same thing with storms.  I think kids develop some fears because of what we tell them.  Girl has no reason to think a thunderstorm is scary, nor does she have a reason to think a monster is, so why would I give her that idea?  If I tell her not to be scared, she'll get the idea that maybe, just maybe, there is something to be scared OF. 

I love thunderstorms and I hope Girl picks that up to, because for the most part, they're just fun.  There is nothing to be scared of.

And while I say that, I'll remind myself to be really brave around spiders.

Plug.

I added a link on my blog to Swagbucks...  if you haven't heard of it, it's totally worth it.  I use the swagbucks search engine instead of google (it gets me to 95% of the places I need) and "win" swagbucks which can be redeemed for stuff... 

There is a lot of garbage to "buy" on the site, like posters and computer wallpaper and stuff...  or you can save up insane amounts and buy yourself a TV (but do the math first). The best deal I've found is 450SBs for a $5 gift card to Amazon (like I said, do the math...  because the $25 Amazon gift card takes more points to buy than 5 @ $5each).  You can also get Paypal cash, but I think it's 1100 points for $10. 

Every month or so I get another $5 and save them up to buy my nieces and nephews their birthday presents (there is also a gift card for Amazon.ca if I want to use it on myself).  Try it, it's good, you'll like free things.

1+1=ACK!

I was told, before having children, that the biggest adjustment to having kids didn't come after the first...  it came when you hit 2 kids.  I understood.  When you have one child you pretty much just change your life to revolve around him or her.  Let's face it... newborns are easy.  As hard as we think they are at the time, they pretty much just eat, sleep, cry and poop (not listed in order of frequency).  Throw a two-year-old into the mix, and you've got yourself a party.  Not only do you need to re-adjust to a newborn, but you also need to help your older child adjust, which often can be the hardest part.  When there are 2 kids in need, one of them has to wait, and it's likely not going to be the one who is causing public lactation that looks like you fell boob-first into a puddle while waiting in line at McDonalds (totally hypothetical situation).

Let's have some fun with math.  Of my available time, Girl had a solid "1".  She has since moved to 1/2 (not taking into account the additional needs of a newborn).  Should Husband and I decide to have more children, Boy and Girl will each move from 1/2 to 1/3, a relatively small change of 1/6th compared with Girl's loss of 1/2.  See, math does come in handy now and then.  Now, for all of you who are shouting at the computer about how your heart expands to love all children the same blah blah blah, I'm not talking about love...  I'm talking about time.  As much as I would love my day to also increase by measure of the number of children I have, I don't get enough sleep as it is. 

I've been lucky so far, Girl has taken the addition of Boy in stride, having a much harder time with my c-section recovery.  Yes, sometimes she screams "He's making too much noise" much louder than he is crying, and has once or twice worried that there wasn't enough room on my ample lap for both of them (always proven wrong on that one), but she's been good. 

The last few nights however have been a little tougher.  For whatever reason, she hasn't wanted to sleep, preferring instead to not lose grip of me.  It has been a long time since Girl has wanted to cuddle, but lately she seems to always want to be on my lap, holding on to me, even to the point where she wants me to lie down in bed with her (something she was adamantly against since the moment she got her big-girl bed.)  I know she needs a bit more attention, and because she has been so good with the adjustment so far, I'm willing to give it to her, even if it means we're up a bit later for a little while. 

It's frustrating, and exhausting, but I remind myself it's not permanent.  This too will pass in a few days, and we'll be on to some new, equally tiring phase.  She'll go to sleep eventually, and when she does, the house will be quiet. 

Boy will then take the opportunity to spit up into my cleavage, just to remind me he is there too.

I love being a mom.

Apple Crisp

In my quest to quickly use up my preserves from last year, I focused on the jars of apple pie filling.  I have a lot of them, so they're pretty obvious in my pantry.  I needed to use them up, since I'm pretty sure Husband will have a coronary if I start bringing home apples and still have a whole pantry full of them.  (They're free AND from his mom, so I don't know HOW he could be upset).  I have so many plans for canning this year, so I suppose I should prove that we eat what I make.  Better late than never.

Apple crisp it is!  It's easy, quick, and Husband loves it (I tend to be most partial to desserts that involve chocolate brownies, but I have yet to figure out how to can that.)  Typically I'd make my apple crisp with fresh apples, but man, this was easier.  I suppose one could argue that I did all the work last fall, but that would assume my prior kitchen antics were considered work.
I buttered a casserole dish, and added 1 500ml (pint) jar of apple pie filling.

Then, I made the crumble.

2 Tbsp melted butter

1 Tbsp brown sugar

2/3 cup rolled oats  

Dump it on top of the apple pie filling, and spread to roughly cover.

Bake at 350º until bubbly and browning on top (maybe 15-20 min).  My mom and second-in-line-resident-apple-crisp-expert said this apple crisp is better, because doing it with fresh apples, you often can't cook down the apples long enough before the crumble is overdone, so this has a better consistency


I wanted to take a nice picture of the finished product, but unfortunately...

...Husband got to it first.

Smoked roasted red pepper salad.

In light of the start of jam/canning/preserving season, I stood staring into my pantry.  The jam cupboards were bare (make a mental note to make more this year), but pretty much everything else was still there, staring me in the face, reminding me of the winter of morning sickness, cold and flu sickness and general fatigue.  The few jars of peaches that were left fermented, and their absence was an obvious hole, but it amazed me how little was eaten.  It doesn't really surprise me when I think about it.  I did feel pretty awful, and when you feel sick, the last thing you want to do is experiment in the kitchen.

The jars that taunted me most were the ones full of smoked roasted red peppers, mainly because they were a recipe of my own invention.   I hadn't even cracked a jar to see how they smelled. 

So, I cracked one open.

They smelled devine.

I knew I needed to do something with them.  As a child, I remembered my mom making a pickled roasted red pepper salad, and I figured adding the smoky element would only add to it, so that's what I did.

It's a simple salad dressing, basically a 1:1 ratio of oil and vinegar (I use a light flavoured oil and white vinegar).  Then cut up as many of the pickled red peppers and onions as I want in the salad.  A touch of salt and pepper, and you're good to go.

Luckily I had a bag of mixed fresh salad greens that Husband's aunt picked fresh the day before.  If you don't have an aunt that gives you salad, feel free to get some at the store.  Toss the whole thing together and you've got yourself a salad.

A little feta cheese wouldn't hurt either.  I didn't have any, but hey, I can do that next time, but maybe after I make a pasta, or maybe a pasta salad, or a sandwich spread, or a casserole... or maybe...  well, that's a whole other post.