See Ya Later, Training Wheels

Abigail decided last week that she was ready to ride a bike without training wheels. She insisted that Daddy remove the training wheels and get her on her way to big girldom. He obliged, and I did my best to stay out of the way.

There seemed to be a bit of a communication issue. He was talking and she was ignoring. 

Needless to say, it didn't go well and she's strictly on scooter patrol for a few months. 

Brewmaster

When we lived in Hawaii, I gifted Daniel with his first brewing kit.  He had always dreamed of brewing, reading books and discussing it with a chief who brewed, but living near a homebrew supply store helped make the dream finally come true. It's a tedious process that requires time and specific supplies, two items he wasn't able to come by easily in South Carolina.  The nearest homebrew shop was not just two hours away, but left a lot to be desired. And, he worked too much to even think about having time for hobbies. So he's been in a brewing slump for the past few years. That is, until last week.

After meandering the local homebrew store and spending his Christmas gift card last week, he was able to spend an entire day brewing two different batches of homebrew. I'm not a beer connoisseur, nor do I even like the smell of it, but he enjoys the hobby and opportunity to tinker with different recipes. I don't know much about the process, but I'll do my best to fill you in on what's going on in these pics.

These are the grains.

This is the concoction cooking.

Again, cooking. I think the hops had just been added in at this point. Sidenote: If anyone ever asks you to smell some hops, don't fall for it. They reek. 

It has to spend a week bubbling and doing it's beer thing before Daniel can bottle it. When he gets to that point in a few days, I'll show you what that looks like. In the meantime, the homebrew is residing in the garage fridge. Once he bottles it, it'll take at least six weeks before it's ready for consumption. 

I've strayed from blogging about the political realm for quite a while. I wanted to leave it be and allow the dust to settle. I didn't want to form any opinions on our new president's performance until enough time had passed to allow a well-rounded performance assessment. However, he jumped the gun, and gave me something to not only be disappointed in, but even disgusted.

In just his third day in office, President Obama lifted the ban on giving federal funds (read: our taxpayer dollars) to international groups that provide abortions and/or abortion information. Granted, he's not the first president to lift such a ban. The ban, originally implemented by the Reagan administration, was also lifted by former President Clinton, while both Presidents Bush upheld the ban. 

Make no mistake about me, I am pro-life in every situation with zero exceptions. I believe it is immoral. I'm not even interested in debating anyone on that issue. However, I feel that this political situation is a whole other issue. I find it absurd that a president would allow our taxpayer funds to be used in such a way.  This issue is so widely opposed by almost half of those who contribute the funds that would be applied. If these countries are so much in need of our citizens' moneys, the ban put in place by Reagan did not ban citizens from contributing their own moneys to this cause they support. No American has ever been personally banned from making their own contributions to these international groups.  However, our new president has now issued a call that my tax dollars are mandated to go to a cause that is so obscene to me. Wasn't this country founded on freedom? I certainly don't feel free in this instance. I feel bound to other citizens' cause, their ideals, and their wants. 

I'm so disappointed in all the bi-partisan promises and statements that he would be bringing people together. If that was true, why did President Obama choose this issue, the most divisive in our country's history, as one of his first to act upon? I'm not alone in my disappointment. On Saturday, Monsignor Rino Fisichella of the Vatican stated about Obama's act, "Among the many good things that he could have done, Barack Obama instead chose the worse."

I can take a bit of solace in being a Texas resident. At a pro-life rally attended by thousands in Austin on Saturday, Gov. Perry asserted his support of all pro-life efforts. He even owed to fight all research that requires an end to human life, i.e. stem cell research. He's serious, folks.  

Unfortunately, President Obama is just as serious.  He attended a similar gathering last week but it was instead a celebration of the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade. He didn't address his lifting of the ban, but did address the moral questioning of the abortion issue, using the chance to re-state his commitment to supporting women's rights. I wish I could ask him how he decides which women to support. Why does he choose to not support the millions of female babies who's lives will be aborted by his decision? And, I'm a woman. I certainly don't feel supported by Obama with the lifting of this ban. I feel stepped on and ignored.

Tuesday Treats - Lean 'N Green Chile

Ingredients
8 (6 inch) corn tortillas, divided
2 teaspoons vegetable oil, divided
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into 3/4 inch pieces
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 cup chopped poblano pepper (1-2 medium) ( I substituted a green bell pepper)
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 pressed garlic clove
2 (14 ounce) cans reduced-fat chicken broth (99% fat-free)
2 (15 ounce) cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 1/4 cups salsa verde (green salsa) or 1 (10 ounce) can green enchilada sauce (I used the salsa verde)
2 tablespoons minced cilantro

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Cut four tortillas in half and stack them one on top of the other. Cut into 1/2-inch strips & toss with 1 teaspoon oil.  Spread tortilla strips in a single layer in a baking pan. Bake 10-12 minutes or until crisp, stirring once. Remove from oven and set aside.  (This is the step I skipped.)
4. Fold each of the remaining 4 tortillas into quarters & and coarsely grate. Set aside. 
5. Toss chicken pieces with cumin.
6. Heat remaining 1 teaspoon of oil in a large soup pan, add chicken and cook 5 minutes. Remove chicken.
7. Add poblano peppers, onion and garlic to pan. Cook and stir 3 minutes.
8. Stir in chicken, broth, beans, salsa and grated tortillas.
9. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to simmer, uncovered, 15 minutes.
10. Stir in cilantro, ladle into soup bowls and top with baked tortilla strips.

I skipped out on the baked tortilla strips topping to cut down on a few useless calories, but it's still a very yummy soup, especially when it's so cold out. And, each serving is very filling, which was surprising for me. Enjoy! (This recipe comes from the Pampered Chef It's Good for You! cookbook.)

Servings: 6. Calories/Serving: 260.

Movie Monday - Mamma Mia!

Man, oh, man. I was on such a roll with my blogging. And, then... PTA happened. I am in charge of the yearbook committee, rather, I am the yearbook committee for Abigail's school this year. My first deadline of 32 pages is due to the publisher this week and I've been filling every spare second I can get at the computer with page layout and proofing over the past week. Aack! I have another 32 pages to do by mid-March, and I'll be oh, so excited when this project has been put to bed. I will then unvolunteer myself for ever doing the yearbook again. I don't even think it's appropriate for an elementary school to have a yearbook. And, why did I ever believe that silly PTA board president when she told me there was very little work involved with this responsibility?!

Anyways, I think I'm back on track to return to blogging just in time for Movie Monday. This week I actually have a non-children's genre movie to gab about! I know, it's shocking. Unfortunately, it's not a good review.

I finally got a chance to see Mamma Mia!.

I've been wanting to see this since it was released, but never dared to request that Daniel see it with me. He would probably have nicely obliged me, but I would have felt very guilty. And, now that I've seen it, I would have felt remorse for making him sit through it.

I think musicals are difficult to pull off on the big screen. Grease is one of the rare exceptions to this. Mamma Mia! is just odd on the big screen. It's weird when out of nowhere a character breaks into an ABBA song complete with choreography and 200 back-up singers/dancers that come out of the bushes. It just didn't jive with me. I think I would enjoy seeing this on stage, but it just didn't work as a flick. 

Another One Bites the Dust...

It's impossible to miss the abundance of media coverage around the pending historical inauguration and close of another president's time. However, my favorite bit of TV coverage devoted to the outgoing President Bush aired last night on The Late Show with David Letterman.



Don't get me wrong, I was a Bush supporter for the majority of his presidency. I'm not usually one to poke fun at him, but one can't help but get more than a few chuckles from that.

JAM Sandwich - Smashed by Pam

You could certainly have labeled us TV-aholics at other times, but it's been quite a while since we've had the time (or desire) to be addicted to the boob tube. Between the kids, work, housework and more entertaining options, we just don't watch it much. HOWEVER... Our DVR is permanently set to capture 30 minutes of some of the most creative and entertaining TV -- The Office.  We sometimes have a few episodes accumulated by the time we can get around to seeing Michael and the gang's antics, but it never fails to disappoint. 

Thanks to the Moores, we now have another way of enjoying the beauty that is The Office. 

You're eyes aren't deceiving you. That's Michael Scott's mug on a die. For Christmas, Maggie, Ted and Kevin gave us a trivia board game for our favorite sit-com. We finally broke it out earlier this week, and it was, obviously, an entertaining match.

Pam (me) in one corner...

Jim (Daniel) in the other corner...

And, this was no JAM sandwich! Pam kicked Jim's tail. Yea! I answered a correct trivia question for each category, collecting a Dundie Award in each color as I trekked across the board. I will be honest, though... The key to my win was not being over-confident. Throughout the game, you can choose to be asked the Assistant to the Regional Manager level questions or the Regional Manager level questions. Of course, I was out to win and always took the Assistant to the Regional Manager level questions. Daniel, thinking he was so much more knowledgeable than I, took only the Regional Manager questions until he realized that he wasn't getting any correct and was very far behind me. By the time he wised up, it was too late. See, Hardy, just because you've seen all the BBC seasons of the original Office, doesn't mean you're smarter than me!

In the end, I collected all my Dundies and the Save the Rabid awareness bracelet to school Daniel in our first round of the game. Go me!