Rain, oh Rain! Where are you?

Okay, I have been waiting patiently for the last two weeks for it to rain. I really would like to give my sprinklers a break, please. In our neighborhood, everyone is obviously competing for golf course-esque lawns. And, frankly, we don't want to keep up with the Joneses on this one. I think we keep coming up with ideas for landscaping that will eventually take up as much of our lawn as humanly possible so that we don't have to mow. Oh, wait, did I saw "we" don't have to mow. If you've read previous blogs, you know that I am the sole lawn mowing person in this household. Yes, I chose to go eco and have a reel lawn mower - resulting in me having to promise to my husband he would not need to mow the lawn ... ever.

At least, today he did get all the edging done. That was a nice treat. I currently have just half the lawn done. I am doing it in bits today due to the dry, hot Minnesota heat. If only it would rain. Rain straight for like a month, I'd be so happy. I like mowing the grass when it is consistently green, and when it's up to us and our sprinklers, most of the lawn gets green ... but there are definitely some brown spots where we forgot to move the sprinkler before we called it quits for a day. Oh ... and due to my lack of watering, the fresh sod that was placed in our front yard due to some work Qwest did, turned all brown and pretty much upped and died. They went through the neighborhood and collected all the dead sod (fortunately, we weren't the only ones) but my question now is ... where in the world is new sod? I don't want major patches of dirt remaining in my lawn. They have until the end of this week. If new sod is not put in ... Qwest will be getting a not so pleasant call from this resident.

And see, if it had just rained (as it had been forecasted) the sod would probably have lived and I wouldn't need to be complaining about my lackluster lawn at the moment. Oh, well, I think it makes me realize moving to Arizona in a place where they don't even have grass wouldn't be such a bad thing.

In Defense of Mothers Everywhere

Okay -- let me just get this out there first -- I do enjoy the show Jon & Kate plus 8. I don't know what's going on in their marriage - but clearly enough to consume the last few covers of my UsWeekly. (clearly it's very slow in celebrity tabloid news) I mostly feel for the kids, because no child deserves to have their parents lambasted in the media like that. But I do have to get something off my chest that has been bothering me lately.

Why must we always blame the mother. I feel like a lot of criticism has been thrown out there about Kate's mother tactics. And what's worse is that there are family and trusted friends who are happily throwing her into the fire. Now, I am going to put aside any judgement on anyone for this ... but it breaks my heart when we have nothing to do but attack mothers who may create crazy rules to keep their premature, sensitive babies safe. Yes, she might have been upset because someone didn't wash their hands in the bathroom but came down to the kitchen to do it ... was it necessary for them to carry germs throughout the home of six small children who had compromised immune systems? And when it comes to other celebrities, it appears that mother is always in the wrong. Denise and Charlie, and Kelly Rutherford and whatever her husbands name is. Both couples divorce while the woman is pregnant with her second child ... and who gets the blame? The mothers.

It feels like our society is turning on women more and more for not being good mothers, for not fulfilling the rest of the world's expectations. Is this fair? A women turns over her body for the care, shelter, food and incubating of another human being for 10 months (do the math - pregnancy is 10 months, not 9) and the thanks she receives is exhaustion, a body she no longer recognizes, bouts of insanity, insecurity and loads of self-doubt. And then to top it off, the rest of the world feels like it's okay to criticize her every move as a mother.

Now mind you, there are some bad mothers out there. The women who locked her daughter up as an infant and basically treated her like an animal until the police discovered the feral child years later. Any parent who beats their child or neglects them. Yes, these are bad parents, but let's not shine the light on parents who maybe don't parent the way we would, but because they are in the public eye we have to hold them to a different standard. One step in a different direction, and you could be in the public eye. How would you feel about your parenting abilities being scrutinized for all the world to see.

UsWeekly please have a none J&K cover next week. Please!

Pure Sweetness

Oh, honey, the most natural sweetener. Liquid gold. Sweet divinity. Last night my tasting club explored the world of honey. And ... well ... it must be said that not all honeys are alike. In fact, I think most of us were surprised with just how different things that are all called honey could smell and taste!

First props to HW the mighty hostess. She maid this scrumptious peach, cheese honey tart. And while I am normally not a fan of peaches -- this was a truly delicious way to kick off the event.

The first honey was the Archer Farms Orange Blossom honey. This mild buttery honey had a bright citrusy burst at the end. It was very smooth and reminded me the most of the honey you enjoyed growing up as a kid. Of course, it was found at Target.

Our second honey - Mountain Honey Manuka (from New Zealand) looked like a yummy gooey caramel. It was thick and gooey and had a sweet floral aroma. The taste ... well, for black licorice fans, this is yours! However, the strong taste of anise did not do me well at all. And apparently, it is a popular choice of honey for medicinal use. The one plus was that it was organic -- but again, not something I think I would eat again. However, some of the tasters who like black licorice truly enjoyed this treat. If your interested, check out Mountain Honey.

Our third honey was the most extravagant of all the honeys. What was presented to us appeared to be a spoonful of molasses. It was very dark and smelled almost earthy to me. The taste - a mix between malt and molasses. I have to be honest, even though it was from a local farm ... I don't know if I'd ever go out of my way for the flavor of buckwheat honey again. My sis was the one who had to find this treat ... and she did traipse all over before she finally found it at a small local co-op. Fortunately the Ames Farm has more than 14 other honeys that I am sure are fabulous! (and when googling for the image of the buckwheat honey, I found a site that raved about it, so maybe it's too refined for my tastes!)

The fourth honey was truly a treat, from a farm just outside of my hometown by the name of Pelucidor Farms. It was sweet and mellow, and the kind of honey you know you'll make a mess all over because it's so liquidy. It was absolutely yummy. And you know it was made just for us, because our friend got a large quantity and poured some into a mason jar.

The next honey was perhaps the groups favorite ... from Williams-Sonoma, it was a French lavender honey. The light gold sweetness melted in your mouth. While just a subtle sweet aroma lingered, it was something you could just slowly savor and not worry about any cares. It was what honey was meant to taste like. Alas, I couldn't find an image of this honey online, but if you have a WS by you and you love honey, you'll definitely want to check this one out. It's in a lovely glass jar with a lavender label.

Our next two honeys were both Kiawe honeys from Hawaii. They were from Molokai Meli. The one was the Kiawe Gourmet and the other was the Premium silky. Both were delightful, more savory than sweet -- which was a great change from some of the over sweetness of the 5 others. Very much like a buttery tea - and they just popped in your mouth. Either one would be good to eat again and again!

The final honey was again from our friends at WS. And what we had anticipated being everyone's favorite. In fact, it had been heard that once you tried this one, you would never get another kind of honey again. The magic gold ... Tupelo. Now, I agree, it was good, but it actually smelled like urine to me ... and I was the only one who it had this effect on. So, it was hard for me to get past this issue. Many people enjoyed it though, but we had others that were much more delightful.

All in all, it was a fantastic evening, but I definitely left on a sugar high with a slight stomach ache. I do have a greater appreciation for the little honey bee and all their hard work. Honey is a precious gift and we should all do what we can to make sure it is a gift not lost to us.

Looking at All the Options

One of my friends who happened to work at the corporate mecca that helps pay my bills is saying farewell to the giant. After much political warfare that I feel is typical of corporate America, she bravely decided she'd had enough and was no longer going to be a slave to the man. Right now, she is my hero. But why she is my hero may not be what you'd first think.

Because she just decided it was time to go, she is leaving without another job waiting at the wings. (She was well prepared for the departure and prepared months in advance, lest you think she was crazy in this decision.) Now ... she has a million options in front of her. The word truly is her banquet waiting for her to pick what she'd like.

At lunch, three of us sat there and talked about all her options. She could go to school (and there were multiple choices there), she could join the Peace Corps, she could move to a different state and being life with a fresh clean slate. It was sort of amazing. While one might think that fear would be your pure state in this situation, instead, she radiated freedom, excitement and potential. Her possibilities are truly limitless.

It made me think more about what I really want to do. Which of course, is write a book. I have a million small ideas in my head and I just need to embrace one and get it out there. I think I may save up my vacation enough to get a month's worth and take a month off and get started. (I'm not too far off from having a month's worth since I've been at the same company for almost a decade.)

I am going to soak in her energy for her life's next chapter and try to infuse my daily choices into it as well. I encourage everyone to embrace the endless possibilities -- my friend has truly taken the very sour lemons that were thrown at her feet and I know she will make divine lemonade out of them.

Three Going on 20

I have to say one of the greatest experiences in my life is just watching my son grow up. It's truly amazing how quickly kids become articulate, sophisticated people. He's barely three and he holds long and engaging conversations. He creates imaginative stories. And he appreciates the most simple pleasures in life. I just can't believe I was like this at that age. The guy is amazing. He puts together a puzzle in a few minutes (and we are talking about 5+ age appropriate puzzles.)

He is, however, very smart and manipulative, too. D and I fully appreciate that we have our hands very full with this one. All he has to do to get his way is look upwards and stick his lower lip out just a bit. He knows we are both suckers for this look and then he usually gets what he wants. We've had to be tougher on each other to help stick to our guns in this whole parenting thing. But knowing that we have each other's support makes it so much easier.

Tonight as I put K to bed, we did our usually routine where we guessed what tomorrow would bring. He has swimming lessons early in the morning and then we'll go grocery shopping (thank goodness it's D's turn to plan this week's menu ... I'm sapped of creativity - it was a grueling week at work!). Tomorrow is special thought because we have the Living Green Expo. So I talked about the Expo with K. I explained it was where he got to try Kefir for the first time. His eyes lit up. "Will I get something tomorrow?" I replied that I didn't know, we'd have to see what was there and how well he behaved. "Could I get a shirt?" (I don't quite get his obsession with shirts, but he likes getting new shirts.) I replied again that I didn't know and couldn't promise. "Maybe I could get a toy?" He said with a huge dimply, cheesy grin. I laughed and said "we'll see."

I warned D that the young man was already plotting his moves for tomorrow.