Nov. 28: A blessing

Today I have a family story to share, which starts with this email from my mother-in-law. I printed it nine years ago and keep it with my cookbooks.

Darlene made this pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving 2003, where it was a huge hit. When I was asked to make dessert for Thanksgiving 2004 at my dad’s house, I asked her to share her recipe. It’s special because the crust is shortbread, and that makes it not only delicious, but easy. The one year I tried to make a rolled pie crust I decided I hate pie, and I’ve never rolled a pie crust since.

The real story about this recipe, though, requires us to examine each section of Darlene’s email. Here’s the first part:

“Good luck with it.” Hm.

The next section:

I love that she gave me little hints—she’s really good about that kind of thing. Darlene is an amazing cook, and her desserts are always beautiful, so I appreciate any help she can give me.

The next section:

See the handwritten part? That’s my handwriting, and I wrote “3/4 c. sugar” after I made and served this pie at my dad’s Thanksgiving feast. AFTER. Yes, Darlene forgot (or should I say “forgot”???) a key ingredient in the version of the recipe she sent me. While making the pie, I thought it was strange that there was no sugar in the filling, but I figured the crust was probably sweet enough that it must not be necessary. I was so, soooo wrong. I proudly served this pumpkin pie after Thanksgiving dinner to 15 people who took their first bites and promptly, politely walked out of the room I was in.

As soon as I tasted it myself, I knew I’d done something wrong. But I’d followed the recipe exactly as it was written! Why did this pie taste so awful? I called Darlene the next day to ask her about it. She grabbed her copy of the recipe and I heard her start giggling. She said, “Oh no! I forgot to write “sugar” on the recipe I sent you!” She couldn’t stop laughing.

And, since Thanksgiving had already been ruined, I started laughing too. I wrote “3/4 c. sugar” on the recipe and have made the pie, correctly,  several times since. But whenever Darlene has shared a recipe with me since this one, I’ve suspiciously asked if the list of ingredients is complete—especially if she writes “good luck with it” at the top. I like to think that she really isn’t evil enough to intentionally sabotage someone’s Thanksgiving dinner, but maybe she’s just smart enough not to do it to the same family member twice. She’s been my mother-in-law for 16+ years; she’s due for a slip-up, don’t you think? I am soooo keeping my eye on that woman.

In spite of this story that’s on its way to becoming a Manullang family legend—maybe even exaggerated to unbelievable degrees as it’s passed from one generation to the next; wouldn’t that be awesome?—I am truly blessed to belong to this part of the Manullang family. They are some of the kindest, most genuine people I know, and they’re way up there on the list of things I’m thankful for today.

Katie and I are making pumpkin pie today. Wish us luck.

Yep, I’m doing another blog challenge. This one is photo-riffic!

Nov. 24: Technology

This blog challenge that I’m half quarter third-assing? Yeah, it’s goin’ just super. Today’s prompt is technology, which is perfect because I wanted to post this photo anyway.

Tina, my dear, sweet neighbor-friend, Instagrammed a pic of her kid playing in boxes.

Pretty cute, right? But the part I really love is the comment Tina’s middle kid wrote to complain about Tina’s oldest kid.

I’m sure Tina will stop her busy moving project… read comments on Instagram… drop everything… drag Alex from his awesome box fort and load him in the car… and race home to mediate whatever injustice is being done. Yep.

Ah, technology. Thanks to social media, when kids are home alone they can whine to their parents in real time. In my day we met them at the door, sometimes bloodied, always emotionally scarred, and promptly ruined their evening.

I can’t decide which is better.

Yep, I’m doing another blog challenge. This one is photo-riffic!

Nov. 21: Work or play?

Every year since 2004, we’ve sent out CDs of oh-so-carefully-selected Christmas music to some of the people on our Christmas card list. Creating the playlist is a project that typically begins in July and continues through late November. I make up a rough list over months and months of research and occasional piracy, design the CD label and case (sleeve) sticker, and Victor jumps in at the end with final approval and the ceremonial Burning of the Huge Spindle of CDs Why Oh Why Do We Continue To Do This Every Year I Don’t Think People Even Care But Jen is a Creature of Habit and Can’t Not Do It So Shut Up and Keep Clicking Those Buttons. That is totally what we call it.

I get excited to start the process every year; it’s become a holiday tradition in the family. Even the kids like to get in on the fun. I enjoy teaching them the fine art of blending The Carpenters, Bing, and Frank with Jimmy Eat World and Barenaked Ladies in a way that makes the finest hour of music anyone’s ever heard.

I might (might!) be overestimating the importance of this thing. Might.

We never set out to create a new CD every year; in 2004, it was just a fun addition to our Christmas cards. But then we talked about how there were still lots of songs we thought we’d like to share, and made another CD in 2005. I don’t think we even discussed whether or not we should make one in 2006. We just did it, and we kept doing it, and now I’m working on our Tenth Annual Christmas CD Extraordinaire. Again with the overestimating and Unnecessary Capitalization!

This year I got a late start. A few weeks ago I checked iTunes for new releases and made notes, but it wasn’t until yesterday that I actually got serious. I made the mistake of setting up at the kitchen table (instead of my desk) and sat in a chair that, while quite comfortable for a meal, is not ideal for seven hours of intense musical work. That’s why I took a handful of muscle relaxants before bed last night and also why this year’s possible CD titles include:

Joy to the OMG I Need a Drink
The 12 Days of Chiropractic Adjustments
All I Want for Christmas is an Ass That Doesn’t Hurt

And now this CD has become a chore. Now I’m not having fun. Now I kinda hate Christmas music. Now I’m remembering that EVERY YEAR I go through the questioning and the re-thinking and the frustration and the throwing in of the embroidered poinsettia towel… but then it all comes together and people say nice things and I’m glad I made the effort. I’ll finish up my part today, turn the rest over to my husband, and will once again be the Christmas music-loving, listen-all-year-long dork that you know and love shake your head over.

Maybe it’s just my extremely relaxed muscles talking, but I already can’t wait to start on the playlist for 2014.

Yep, I’m doing another blog challenge. This one is photo-riffic!

Nov. 17: Watching

I can’t remember how long ago we cancelled cable TV service, but it seems like maybe a couple years. Victor missed ESPN and other sports channels. I missed the frequent Law & Order marathons on TNT and USA. Katie missed watching hours of reruns on Disney and Nickelodeon in her spare time. Generally, it seemed like having less reason to sit in front of the TV was a good thing for our family.

Without cable we were still able to keep up with our favorite current shows by watching Hulu, and thanks to Netflix and Amazon Prime, we got to watch season after season of new-to-us shows. I honestly don’t think Victor or I spent any less time watching TV than before, but the kids definitely did.

And then something terrible happened.

A couple weekends ago Victor realized we were no longer getting a good signal to receive local channels. We bought an antenna but it made no difference. He was hyperventilating over the idea of missing a football game between two teams he cares nothing about, so I contacted Comcast to get us hooked up again.

The rep didn’t ask if we wanted HD service, and I didn’t even think about asking for it; it’s been 16+ years since I last requested cable TV service. The picture is terrible and we’ll be fixing that soon. But after a week of being able to watch live (fuzzy) football on local channels, ESPN, and the NFL network, my husband is happy as can be. Jack, too.

Katie has happily parked herself in front of Disney and Nickelodeon night after night. I haven’t had a chance to watch much L&O, but I predict I’ll be folding laundry in front of a marathon soon. Give us a few more months and we’ll be TV zombies again. Yaaaaay.

Yep, I’m doing another blog challenge. This one is photo-riffic!

Nov. 11: Jack’s TD

I’m not gonna make excuses for failing miserably at my blog challenge this month. I’ve felt rotten for the last week and, quite frankly, have thrown my hands in the air like I just don’t care.

I do care about this video, however, which shows Jack making a touchdown in his last game of the season. He’s #25, and you’ll see him in the foreground before he gets the ball and squeezes through all those big kids. He is one fast little dude.

I love that Blaine runs to Jack immediately after the touchdown and congratulates him. The boys all seemed to be so supportive of each other throughout the season, and the coaches were (mostly) great. ‘Specially that one. Dina knows who I’m talkin’ about. Rawr.

It was a nail-biter of a game, and our boys won in the last few moments 42-43. It made me love football more than a little bit—but only for a little bit.

Now that we’re done with football for eight months or so, I can stop mega-dosing on Xanax. I get to go back to being mostly-always-anxious Jen, which is a huge improvement over constantly-anxious Jen (why do they gots to hurt my boy all the time, huh?).

Yep, I’m (kinda) doing another blog challenge. This one is photo-riffic!

Nov. 5: A favorite place

When you think of your favorite place, is that place an actual location or is it more like a state of mind? For me, it’s either or both. My favorite locations—where I’m happiest, I think—are an (uncrowded) beach, Sunriver, Disneyland Resort, San Francisco, and Maui. I’d add Paris, France to the list but-cept being in a country where people pretend they don’t understand English stresses me out.

State of mind-wise, I’d say my favorite place is wherever I’m around people with which I’m able to be myself… the ones who “get” me… who aren’t competitive… who can relax too… who make even boring stuff fun. Here’s art I found on Pinterest that sums up this state of mind pretty well:

  

I’m fortunate to have a lot of friends who bring love and laughter wherever they go, which means I spend time in my favorite place frequently. How lucky am I?

So no, I don’t have to leave home to be in my favorite place, but I’ll be honest: an opportunity to leave home is almost never refused. I say this just in case you were planning to give me a vacation for Christmas but are now thinking it’s not what I want. IT IS TOTALLY WHAT I WANT, OK?

Yep, I’m doing another blog challenge. This one is photo-riffic!

Nov. 4: Silly boys

Back in my day, we called them “titty twisters.” Now kids call them “purple nurples,” which is a far more preferable term, IMHO. I’m thankful that this moronic and painful pastime goes on only between the boys in my house. Here they are, checking out tonight’s post-war injuries:

My reaction when they start in on each other always reminds me of the Seinfeld episode in which George and Jerry are explaining to Elaine the fine art of wedgie-giving:

Elaine: “Boys are sick.”

Jerry: “What do girls do?”

Elaine: “We just tease someone until they develop an eating disorder.”

Yep, I’m doing another blog challenge. This one is photo-riffic!

Nov. 3: Painting project

I’ve been meaning to write about a project I recently attempted; unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures of the process or the finished product. Then, when I saw today’s blog challenge prompt (“paint”), I thought of a great plan: I would steal the photo someone else took of my project! Ta-da!

Photographer credit goes to Sherilee. She was the recipient of four of these stem-less goblets, which I painted with fancy paint. I also made a set for Tina, and I forgot to take a picture of hers too.

I kept seeing these glasses as an Anthropologie hack on Pinterest, but my brain wheels had been turning ever since I received a hand-painted glass on one of my first visits to Val’s house. There are lots of options for painting on glass, but for the most durability and longest life, I recommend paint that’s made especially for glass—people say regular ol’ Sharpies work but they don’t. Martha Stewart makes a beautiful selection of styles and colors of glass paints, and DecoArt is another good option—check Michael’s and JoAnn’s. I chose a type that could be baked so the items would be dishwasher-safe—again, a life-extender. (I avoid kitchen items that can only be hand-washed. I have a huge china cabinet full of them and that’s enough for this girl.)

Here are my thoughts on the glass-painting process:

1. The best stores I know of for plain glass items (drinking glasses, vases, pitchers, plates, serving pieces, etc.), cheap, are IKEA, Ross, and TJ Maxx. There goes my secret, Sher and Tina. ;)
2. Plan to practice with different types of painting tools until you get the look you want. In the photos below, it’s obvious that some projects will require more than just a paintbrush tip, which is what I used for my project. Pens are great if you can find the right colors and types, but if you want to draw tiny designs and have a steady hand you’ll go far with a small paintbrush.
3. Elevate whatever you’re painting to eye level or your back will be killing you for days. Trust me on this.
4. If you’re not naturally steady-handed, at least plan to be sober.
5. The eight glasses I painted took most of one day. This is not a quick gift you can throw together on the way to the birthday party.
6. It is really, really hard to fix mistakes when you’re painting designs close together. Be extry-careful, or plan to work mistakes into your design.

Here are some other Pinterest pins I’ve collected for my “painted glass ideas” folder:

     

 

I love, love, love receiving handmade gifts, and therefore love giving them too. This month I’ll try to post more do-able ideas. Christmas is cooooming!

Yep, I’m doing another blog challenge. This one is photo-riffic!

Nov. 2: Close-up on Lucy

Apologies to the people who visitor our home, because you’re gonna get this thing straight up your butt—like, HELLO, DOCTOR! deep.

Lucy really likes getting to know people well, and she’s just the right height to do it her own special way. Sometimes our visitors miss the days when we had small dogs (“sometimes” = “every time”).

 

Yep, I’m doing another blog challenge. This one is photo-riffic!

Oct. 2: Birthdays and blog challenge review

Before I do anything else, I want to offer sincere apologies to two of my friends whose birthdays I let pass unacknowledged. I am greatly ashamed, and offer the following super-duper lame explanations.

Hawaii Laura, I don’t really have a good excuse but-cept that I was on Facebook for just a very short time on LaurApeber 30 and missed the reminder (not at all because I lost interest in the month after KimJenber/JenKimber ended). I contacted the Hawaii Department of Transportation and had these signs made and installed throughout the islands. My guess is that you’re too busy out paddling in the surf to travel via highways, so here’s a pic:

Margaret, I’m gonna use the hardly-on-Facebook-on-Monday excuse for you too, and add that I’m also kind of a jerk. I rented out letters and space in the West Hills to apologize; here’s a picture in case you missed my message:

(This is obviously that one section of the West Hills in which there are no trees and also let’s pretend there was blue sky this week. Yes, let’s do that.)

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Blog Challenge Review Time

So. In September I challenged myself to blog every day. With one exception, I got a post up each day of the month, and it’s time to reminisce. Cue the music.

• It was fun, mostly in the beginning. By the end it was a little less fun and felt kinda chore-like.
• It prompted me to work on my blog design, which I hadn’t tweaked in a very long time. The background, the color scheme, the layout… it’s a big change. As it’s much bolder than I’ve had before, I’m not sure how long I’ll keep it, but for now I think it’s fun and cheery.
• It sort of prompted my mom to start her own blog. THAT might be the best result of all. Yay, Mother Mary! (Check out what she posted this morning—a tale about my mother in all her passive-aggressive glory.)
• There were days I felt extra-stressed to get a post written. Mostly those were the recipe days, in which I had nothing recently-made to share and knew I’d have to either make something or word the post so it sounded like I’d made it recently. My real accomplishment is that, except for the seasoning, the recipes I posted were made specifically for this blog challenge, but please do not ask me to do that again.
• (Why were there so many recipe days? Because I created this challenge with Sherilee, whose blog is deliciously recipe-heavy. I must have been drunk when I sent her my list of topic ideas and said, “Add whatever you want.”)
• I’ve tried bunches of different ways to write blog posts using my iPad, but nothing works as well as my tried-and-true method on my oh-so-cumbersome laptop. Knowing I would have to lug it out every single day was annoying.
• It definitely helped my chances of success to share the challenge with someone else. If I hadn’t been worried about the Wrath of Sherilee™, I may not have lugged out the laptop every day.
• (Sherilee is really not that wrath-y, but I know we would’ve given each other grief if either had failed.)
• I can’t make any promises, but there’s a good chance the desired result—getting back into a habit of blogging regularly—might actually manifest itself. Mission accomplished, right?

Thanks to all of you who tuned in throughout the month, putting up with my inane rambling and leaving comments here and there. ‘Twas cool to have you along.

Sep. 30: A favorite photo

Today’s Day #30 of the blog challenge.

Show us a favorite photo and tell us why you love it.

This photo is from Saturday evening, when a bunch of us gathered at the House of Manullang to celebrate Tina’s, April’s, and my birthdays. I love this picture because it’s full of people who make me smile and feel all warm and fuzzy just to be around them.

Jenn K, Dina
Val, Fancy Lori
Tina, me
Cristina, April

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Well, this is the last day of our September Blog Challenge. Tomorrow I’ll write about how it went for me and whether it’ll make any difference to my future blogging. Thanks for tuning in this month!

Sep. 29: Fame

Day #29 of the September Blog Challenge. Today’s topic:

If you were ever to become famous, what would it be for?

I like to think I’d be famous for something like winning a trillion dollars and donating it all to charity (don’t worry; I’d hold a little back to take y’all on a vacation somewhere good). Or maybe I could be famous for curing cancer or hangnails—you never know. I think I might like to be famous for being the greatest person ever for no known reason, although that’d be an awful lot to live up to for just one person. I’d be willing to try it though.

Most likely, I’d be famous for being the woman who, due to her extreme clumsiness, inadvertently initiated a Rube Goldberg-like series of events that led to the demise of the human race.

Yep, I’d be famous but there’d be no one left to be famous to. Figures.

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If you’re a blogger and want to do our blog challenge with us, let me know and I’ll send you our list! Otherwise, tune in here (and on Sherilee’s happy little blog) every day in September.

Sep. 28: Appreciating people

It’s Day #30 of the September Blog Challenge, but I still haven’t written my Day #28 post, so that comes first. Then I need to do Days #29 and #30, and I’ll be caught up. I’m cheating a little by dating these correctly even though they’re being published late. Please don’t tell anyone.

Tell us the things you appreciate about your closest friends.

It’s hard for me to know how to limit this list, as I’m fortunate to have oodles of friends I think of as “close.” So, I went through emails, Facebook, and texts to see those I’ve communicated with most recently and made my list from there. Fair? Let’s just say it is. If you’re not on this list, it’s just because I haven’t communicated with you in the past three or four days, not because I don’t like you. Although… you never know now, do ya?

April: As evidenced by our friendship that’s going on 30 years, April’s a keeper. In her birthday wishes on FB the other day, I wrote why she’s the best: she's a great embarrassing-secret-keeper/college-memory-forgetter (or never-mentioner?) and one of the kindest, silliest, funniest people I know. You'd almost never guess that she once punched a girl. I really love the punching part. She’s such a gentle, quiet, kind person but SHE WILL KICK YOUR ASS.

Cassie: Smart, silly, fun… When you have friends with which you can play a game like Cards Against Humanity, well, you gotta hang on to those friends. Total rock star, this one.

Cristina: Sweet and so funny! Her whole family rocks, really. Nearly every day you’ll find one or both of my kids at her house or one or two of hers at mine. I love having neighbors like Cristina; if she ever moves away I will cry and cry because WHO KNOWS who might move in after her? The possibilities are scary.

Dina: She likes big books and she cannot lie… I like Dina because she shares a hatred of many of the same things I do, but a love of a few things too. Like sarcasm. And gossip. Here’s why I can’t believe I like her sometimes: she hates musicals and Disney. I KNOW, RIGHT??? You would think that someone with a tremendous fault like that would be off my list fast, but no… she makes up for it with all the other good stuff. And I don’t mean “good stuff” in a wink-wink kind of way. I don’t think we’ve been drunk enough together for that yet.

Ed: Someone I know has been secretly doing this blog challenge with me and didn’t tell me until just the other day. In spite of his withholding of important information, I appreciate Ed’s good taste in books—he introduced me to the Tales of the City series and encouraged me to try reading Margaret Atwood. He acknowledges the important life events—he came to see both my kids right after they were born. But, like Dina, he hates Disney. I guess maybe it’s good that he has that HUGE FAULT, because the world probably isn’t ready for that much awesome coming from one person.

Jenn K: She’s Jenn-with-two-enns (I’m Jen-with-one-en). Need a life of the party? Jenn K is your gal. When she’s around, shit gets laugh-ier, louder, and crazier. I would totally braid my hair into hers.

Kim F’n-W: If I could customize my Facebook news feed any way I choose, Kim’s posts would always show up first so I wouldn’t miss a single one. She was my biggest cheerleader throughout chemo, and I love that she always finds the funny in even the worst situation—it helps me do the same.

Fancy Lori™: She’s funny and smart and clever and made-up words are like nails on a chalkboard to her. In other words, she’s easy to tormentalize. It’s funner than anything! She knits bald caps/yarn wigs like a champ, and even whips out surprises for white elephant parties (yikes). I also felt honored that Lori wanted to write about my cancer story in this newspaper supplement last year. I like her. I do.

Sherilee: She inspires me to be more positive. She surprises me with boxes of homemade kettle corn delivered to my front door. We love a lot of the same TV, and the amount of time we text-chat about characters and plotlines is slightly embarrassing. Sherilee knows the true value of friendship and family, and I love that about her.

Sunshine: We haven’t been super-great about communicating since she moved away, which bums us both out, but we easily pick up where we left off. Sunshine makes me smile and laugh and is so very, very dear to me. She’s a good one.

Theresa: You want this girl on your side, for sure. Theresa is one of the kindest and most generous people I know. She’s super pretty and sweet, too, which makes her potty-mouth all the more shocking and hilarious. If you want to see a true Wonder Woman, just watch Theresa—she can do it all, and with a smile.

Tina: I feel fortunate to have such a sweet next-door neighbor, who always offers to help when she sees a need. One of the things I admire about her is her dedication to making memories for her kids—seems she’s always planning for fun.

Val: Oh, goodness. I love the snark and sassy this girl brings to the table. You wouldn’t think the snark and sassy could go along with kind and thoughtful, but SHE MAKES IT WORK. Val is the very definition of “you can count on me,” in so many ways.

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If you’re a blogger and want to do our blog challenge with us, let me know and I’ll send you our list! Otherwise, tune in here (and on Sherilee’s happy little blog) every day in September.