Wordless Wednesday: "I Love You" Flowers from my Boys

On Not Having it All

For those of you who don't know, I am a Business Manager at our Catholic high school.  The same high school where my handsome hubby teaches theology.  The same high school where we hope our children attend one day.  It's the perfect job for me, and I am so grateful to have the position.  Our family depends on my income and since I *have* to work, I am glad to have a job I like.

Yet, the more I try to manage the business side of things at work, the more I see how badly my home and family needs me to manage it.  Every successful business has a manager of some sort, right?  Then why do I think our family can get by with a home manager that's only working on a part-part-part-part time basis?

Back when I was a stay-at-home Mom, I could easily fit cleaning the house and preparing meals and paying the bills and shopping for groceries into my day.  Of course, I did not homeschool (you homeschooling moms are amazing) and I had plenty of time to manage my home.  Plus, as I was reminded by my good friend, Sarah, when you are at home doing all those things and caring for small children, you naturally are active all day and fitting in exercise wasn't as much of a necessity.  So now in addition to sitting at a desk all day working, I need to fit in exercise time too.

The problem is that after working all week, it's very tempting to make quick but less-than-healthy dinners and ordering takeout is just too convenient.  Once the kids are done with homework and bathed and in bed, the last thing I want to do is clean the bathroom (I haven't learned my lesson yet) or fold the laundry or unload the dishwasher.   This means I have to use our precious weekend family time to grocery shop, clean the house, run errands, pay bills, and everything else that never gets done during the week.  And all this adds up to one tired Mom.  I'm so very, very tired all the time. 

I can see why so many working moms have house cleaners and order delivery groceries and buy pre-packaged meals.  Anything that makes the house run smoother all week long is almost priceless. Except that it's not.  Adding in those costs would probably make us have to work more which would just be feeding into the vicious cycle.  It's bad enough that a chunk of my salary is going to the nanny who is practically raising my baby because I can't.  What's the point of having babies if you can't even be with them?  It's so sad.

I really think God's plan of the men hunting/working for food and the women cooking/caring for their family was the best plan.  When did women buy into the lie that we can have it all?  Maybe we can have a career and be a wife and raise children, but there's no way we can do it all well.  I haven't met one woman that thinks she has it all together. I wish we could go back to basics and men could make a living wage for their family so women could stay at home with their family.  I know that probably makes me the ultimate anti-feminist, but hey, I'm too tired from "having it all" to care.  

(Comments closed because I know I'm just having a small pity party and will feel better tomorrow)

Weekend Wrapup

Saturday morning was four soccer games.  Apparently all of my kids won their games even though Maggie only scrimmages her teammates and they don't keep score! 

Thank God John-Paul's game ended about ten minutes after the rain started.  Let's just say my shower drain was a little clogged after these conditions.

Sunday morning I awoke to my little princess. 

Don't even tell me he's not a princess - he has a wand for pete's sake.

C'mon Mom, it looks like a gorgeous day!!

I'll even try to eat your hand cream if it'll help get you out of bed faster.

It worked, I got up and went for an 8 mile run. 

I think I'm going to run the same half-marathon in March that I did last year and two years prior to that.  It's going to be on St. Patrick's Day this year which I think will make it extra festive.  I only want to do it if I feel really ready to run it under 2 hours again....so we'll see.

In the afternoon, we took the kids on a hike:

I got wildflowers galore:

Eamon always walks like this:

T

Phil says: "Bridle trail.  You'd think it would be hard for them to walk in their white dresses."

Saw tons of these.  Or maybe just the same one fluttering by:

Rocks to climb on:

And big brothers to help you get down. 

John-Paul says "If you put this on the computer, write how strong I am" 

(I think he just wants to impress Lotus)

Babies in sneakers crack me up:

It would have been the perfect weekend if only the Patriots had won.  Urgh.

7 Quick Takes Friday

1)

Gosh I love working at a Catholic school.  Just look at what is offered in the beautiful chapel right around the corner to my office:

This makes it so easy to "fit in" prayer time.  It's the getting here by 7:10 for Mass that's hard!  But so far, so good. I figure the screaming at the kids to HurryUpAndGetOutoftheHouse is cancelled out by making it to Mass on time.  Right?  Right?

2)

I am not making any announcement, but I keep having dreams about being pregnant.  

I think it's because Xander is in that ridiculously cute stage of toddlerhood that always tricks me into wanting another baby.  

And Lord knows I don't feel ready for another pregnancy and delivery (more on that later).  

But a baby, yes I would definitely take a baby.

3)

I have been preparing for Eamon's 6th birthday that is coming up in 2 weeks, and he is all about Skylanders right now, so he will be getting this, this, and money to buy a Giant Skylander when it comes out.  And we will be putting him on top of his cake.  He should be thrilled!  

A week after Eamon's birthday is Andrew's 8th birthday, and then Phil's 32nd comes a week later.  And then I throw in the towel until December when I have to think about Maggie's birthday and Christmas. 

4)

I made an ecard:

Because sometimes this whole blogging-only-the-positives feels a bit hypocritical.  

It's hard because I want to record memories that my kids can look back on later, and a lot of my real life friends and family read this blog, and I don't want to complain and put the negative stuff in writing too often.  

But then by only writing about the good stuff, it may appear like my life is perfect, which is so not true. Almost true, but not totally true.

Anyhoo, it's like she said.

5)

I was in the market for new jeans after reading this life-changing article and ended up buying one of the recommended brands, Rock and Republic after fainting from the prices of most of the other jeans recommended.  Do people really pay over $100 for jeans?  I had no idea.  I thought my $50 Gap jeans were splurges.  Anyway, Kohl's sells the R&R jeans and they were on sale, plus I had a 30% off code, plus Kohl's Cash - you know how Kohl's rolls - and I got these for $31.79!!

6)

Do you play the lottery or buy scratch tickets?  I always viewed that stuff as a "poor man's tax" but Phil and I were inspired to play/try to win after watching a 20/20 show about lottery winners.  Turns out most of them spend all their money foolishly, get divorced and estranged from their families, and wish they hadn't won it in the end.  

But that's not the point we chose to focus on.  

Winners!  We could be winners!  

So last week I decided to play Mass Cash where you pick 5 numbers and play them each day for a dollar a day.  If you get three numbers, you win $10, four matching numbers lets you $250 and picking all five numbers correctly gets $100,000.  The first week we played we won $10 ($3.00 profit).  I think they must know somehow who the first-time gamblers are and give them a lucky break to get them hooked.  Note to the Lottery - it's working!

7)

Did any of you watch X Factor on Wednesday night?  

A former student from the high school we work at was on the show and made it through!  She came in the next day to visit:

That's her in the middle

Catch Jill Jensen's audition here.

Have a wonderful weekend everybody!!

Wordless Wednesday: Two Teeth Down, 18 to Go!

Cooking with Colleen: Crockpot Chili

Oh my goodness, America's Test Kitchen, you have never given me a recipe that wasn't ah-mah-zing and this is no exception!  All those double negatives are confusing.  What I'm trying to say is: Make this recipe and die from deliciousness. 

 

 I'm not even a big chili lover, but this was sooooo good with some Mutigrain Scoops (to be healthy, of course), shredded cheese (for calcium), and sour cream (for a touch of class).  Perfect for those chilly Fall evenings where getting supper on the table is difficult during the witching hours.  Just do a little work in the morning and dinner's done!

 

Crockpot Chili

 

Ingredients:

2 T. oil (or bacon fat, if you love bacon like we do)

2 onions, chopped medium

1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and chopped medium

1/4 cup chili powder

1 Tbsp. cumin

1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

Salt

6 garlic gloves, minced

2 lbs. ground beef (85% lean to help with the moisture)

1 (28 oz) can tomato puree

1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes

2 (15.5 oz) cans red kidney beans, rinsed

Pepper

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven (or stock pot) over medium heat until shimmering.  Add the onions, bell pepper, chili powder, cumin, cayenne, and 1/2 tsp salt.  Cook until the vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes.  Stir in the garlic and cook for 15 seconds.

2. Add the beef and increase the heat to medium-high.  Cook, breaking up the beef, until no longer pink, about 10 minutes. Stir in the tomato puree and diced tomatoes with their juice, scraping up any browned bits.  Bring to a simmer, then pour into the slow cooker.

3. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4-5 hours.  Stir in the beans during the last hour of cooking. 

 

 Before serving, season with salt and pepper to taste (I didn't think it needed any). 

Phil also skimmed some of the fat off the top which was obviously the piece de resistance.