With life finally settling down, last week was one of the best ones I’ve had for cooking in a long time. I made some old favorites and tried some newer things as well, including jambalaya and cream of cauliflower soup. Those are not technically “new” recipes to me, just things I don’t make all that often.

I did try one new recipe on Saturday morning though and I am pleased to say that in spite of some initial skepticism from my children, it was a total hit – Pumpkin Pancakes.

I pretty much followed the recipe as is was except that I followed the suggestion of one of the reviewers and used 2 eggs instead of 1 and upped the spices quite a bit. The result was wonderful. The pancakes were pleasantly pumpkin-y but not too sweet. The next time I make them, I’ll likely try replacing some of the white flour with wheat germ or ground flaxseed (Ssshhh!).

The rest of my kitchen equipment is due to arrive tomorrow morning from Cairo. Once I get it all organized and put away, I won’t have any more excuses not to cook (except time!). My current goal is to cook a nice meal at least 4x a week. The other three nights? I think may need to assign those nights to the other three members of my family! It may mean Cheerios for dinner but I could live with that once in a while if it meant I didn’t have to cook every night

Isn’t she lovely? (Yes, the book is a “she”!) I’m especially pleased because this is the first time One Crazy Summer has been available in print.

My new challenge: getting ALL THE WAY HOME proofed and formatted and in hand by June 11. Why so soon? Because the friend I’m staying with decided to throw a book party for me. I’d like to have all of my titles available. Soon after that, I’ll be participating in a sale in Minnesota as well. Might as well use these opportunities as a push to get my butt in gear, right?

Then I guess I have to get back to writing something new…

Since I am not in my own home at the moment, I have not been doing much cooking / baking and so I am not on track for keeping up with my new recipe / new dessert resolution. I have revisited some old family favorites which are new to my children and have been well received, but it doesn’t count toward my goal since I myself am not trying anything new.

(I have been watching my friend when she cooks though and have been storing away some ideas for later.)

I haven’t been walking for exercise or anything else. I actually own a car now and use it far more than my feet to get around. In fact, I haven’t even done yoga since the end of January and I’m missing it. I did buy a yoga mat but it’s hard to get motivated to do a workout on my own.

(The bike path near the river is an attractive alternative though)

Time management? Yet another fail. First we evacuated our home, then I spent several weeks homeschooling. The children are back in school now but I still can’t seem to find a rhythm. I waste all day hanging around, running errands, or simply killing time until the children come home again and get next to nothing done. If nothing else changes, this must. Not feeling productive is very depressing to me.

(As things continue to settle down, I should have many fewer errands / excuses to get out of my work)

All of my books are up and available digitally on several different websites, but it is time for me to get busy and get the last three proofed and formatted for print. They aren’t going to format themselves – I just need to sit down and do it.

I am sincerely going to try and have at least two of the three books ready to go by the end of April. That’s a reasonable goal, right? I’m timid to make too grandiose a plan given how things have been going lately. I don’t want to tempt fate.

Maybe making those books available will get me in the mood to get back to my current WIP? Can’t hurt to try.

I admit it: I don’t read or watch the news. Most of it is worthless anyway and the really newsworthy items filter back to me eventually. (It’s a good system actually) This is probably old news to many of you, but it recently came to my attention that there are cities in the US that are banning sledding, at least in public areas.

This didn’t surprise me actually, but it did make me sad. I can remember when I was 3 or 4, our house sat on the top of a fairly steep hill, at the bottom of which was a busy street and a T intersection. I spent many hours racing down that hill, skidding to a stop at the last minute with my feet, just short of the street. Talk about a rush! I’m not saying that situation was ideal or that kids should be allowed to sled out into traffic, but children shouldn’t be denied the pleasures of winter snow play because parents aren’t willing or available to supervise them.

The first time I noticed this sort of legislation, it was merry-go-rounds in playgrounds. Many of the parks in Dubai included them while most in the US do not. (Of course many of the parks in Dubai also include broken equipment and jagged posts but I digress) I suppose some children fell while running to get them going or fell / jumped off while they were spinning and hurt themselves so someone, somewhere decided merry-go-rounds were too big a risk and had to go. I don’t doubt that there have been many broken limbs and stitches caused by merry-go-rounds, but using that sort of logic what about stair railings? How many children have been hurt sliding down a railing and flying off at the bottom? Should we do away with railings, essentially a safety feature, because a few goofy kids used them in a way not intended and got hurt?

For that matter what about trees? The son of a friend of mine recently fell out of a tree in his backyard and gashed himself behind the ear on the way down and required stitches. Should we cut down all the trees to prevent accidents like this in the future? Trees clean the air, give homes to birds, and provide us with oxygen but isn’t protecting our children more important?

Statistically most accidents happen at home, in the bathroom. Shall we do away with those too? Children get hurt, even under supervision. Life’s a risk.

Dig deeper and much of the problem comes back to lawsuits. Too many people see their own bad luck at getting hurt as a get-rich-quick scheme, but until the court system in the US stops wasting time listening to people trying to blame other people for their own actions and consequences, laws prohibiting this and that will just keep popping up. Was the merry-go-round was so poorly maintained that it flew off its axis while spinning? Maybe there are grounds for a lawsuit. Did a child, lacking forethought, jump off mid-spin and land on a rock? Suck it up, pay the doctor, and go about your business.

But there’s a greater problem that comes out of all this legislation of our behavior: obesity. Obesity is a huge problem in the US among adults and children. Experts and wring their hands and point the finger at poor food choices and that is, at least, part of the problem. The other part of the problem is that children today aren’t allowed to do anything anymore. See above.

My children have been asking for a Wii ever since they came out, and so many of the parents I know who have given in and bought one use the argument that at least when the children play games / sports on Wii they are off the couch and moving. In Cairo, I can almost buy that argument because there are few good open spaces for children to run and play in this huge, overcrowded city and hardly anyone has a backyard. However, I do not believe that standing and waving a remote around the living room is a replacement for the real thing – and until I meet someone who mastered skiing on Wii and then successfully skied down a real mountain in real snow, I will remain unconvinced. Too many children I know who do have a Wii are still pudgy and uncoordinated.

(I don’t have a Wii because my children are active enough on a daily basis that I don’t begrudge them a little couch time.)

We think we’re protecting our children with all these rules and laws but what I fear is that we are raising a generation to not only lead a sedentary lifestyle but also to deny taking any responsibility for their own actions and behavior.

I just hope that in the end, my pottery projects come out as I envision.

On another topic, housing is provided with my husband’s job and a while back we requested to be moved to a larger apartment. I’ve loved the one we are currently in for the nearly four years we lived here, however we’ve outgrown the space and the children really need their own rooms. The housing department called us on Thursday to say they had a place for us and could we move on Tuesday? My initial reaction was um…no! I’ve gotten pretty good at moving, but I’m not THAT good! The movers I called yesterday for a quote on moving our large furniture items gave me such a good quote on moving everything that I decided in the interest of my stress levels and the remaining disks in my back to let them! They also suggested they could move us on Tuesday and since they are also responsible for the packing, Tuesday it is! Fortunately, our new place is only a few blocks away so things don’t have to be packed quite as carefully as they would if we were moving countries, but it’s still a big job.

Bigger still will be the job of cleaning / sorting / unpacking on the other end!

I also wanted to report that I did try a new recipe over the weekend (February – check!) I made shrimp chowder, using a fish chowder recipe from my Jane Brody cookbook. The only things I changed were I substituted shrimp for fish, I omitted the white wine, and I added a can of corn. It was amusing how much the frozen “cooking shrimp” I bought shrunk in the process though – in the end they were so small they could have been sea monkeys! The chowder was a hit – very tasty – and I’ll definitely be making it again.

I suspect the rest of this week we’ll be eating sandwiches and pizza however!

I’ve activated my Curves membership. I haven’t been many times yet but that’s not entirely my fault – their hours during Ramadan didn’t mesh well with my schedule and then I was away and when I came back the kids were off school, blah blah blah. Their new hours are much better for me so I went this morning. While I’m not totally sold on their “rah rah” motivational atmosphere (their wall clock says “Time to Amaze Yourself”) I do like their thirty minute approach – cause that’s about all I want to spend there anyway!

I’ve also tried out a couple of yoga classes at a new studio in my neighborhood and signed up for a water aerobics class. Can I just say now that water aerobics, done right, is hard!? I couldn’t walk for about 4 days after my first class. I wondered if I was going to be limping around Italy! I did enjoy it though and since I’ve already paid, I suppose I’ll be going back this week.

So, after two years of doing next to no exercise, I have a new (ambitious) plan. Barring school holidays, travel, or illness I intend to do yoga once a week, Curves three times a week, and water aerobics once a week. Next week will be my first full week. We’ll see how it pans out.

I’ve also been eating better – having so many evening sports activities with the children has forced me to do more meal planning. We’ve been eating such nice meals that I’ve even been able to keep my occasion longings for fast food in check. So what’s the problem?

The problem is when people like Shelley Munro go and post a recipe like this on their blogs! How’s a girl supposed to resist that? Optional chocolate chips, my foot!

Nothing good can come from it – well, maybe one thing: I’m sure to get crowned Best Mom ever after school today.

One of the leaves that regularly gets turned over at this time of year is the resolution to Eat Better. It’s no wonder coming off a summer of indulging in all of our favorite treats. More meal planning, less fat, more protein – all the usual stuff. And stir fries.

One meal my husband keeps trying to convince me is the solution to all our meal woes is stir fries. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good Asian stir fry – when it is delivered to my home in a tidy cardboard carton. It’s creating it myself that I’m not so enthusiastic about.

Hubby argues that it doesn’t have to complicated, that the problem is we try to put in too many ingredients. We just need to focus on simplicity. I know from past experience he’s wrong, but sometimes it’s just too much trouble to argue. So we made stir fry last night.

We picked just a few ingredients. Broccoli, asparagus, and an onion. And a few shrimp because if it’s only vegetables then hubby is hungry again immediately. I made a garlic sauce and got the veggies washed ahead of time and then made the rice while hubby cut up the veggies and got out the wok.

The cooking part was quick, I’ll give him that. And the sauce was tasty. But that meal used up two cutting boards, two saucepans and a wok and it there wasn’t even enough for the children to have any, even if they’d wanted it. I ended up having to make (homemade) mac-n-cheese for them with a side of steamed broccoli (three more pots).

Have I ever mentioned that I don’t have a dishwasher? I *am* the dishwasher! Whatever time was saved in actual cooking was definitely consumed in the cleanup.

I am going to quietly rotate stir-fries out of the lineup…