Monday's Goals

Happy Mom Goal:

Get out that bubble bath and the radio. Draw a bath, of course with extra bubbles. Put on your favorite relaxing CD or ipod playlist, light some candles or incense, and just relax! Don't worry about the cleaning, just soak your troubles away. Then wash your body with a refreshing-smelling body soap. Ahhhhhhh!

Happy Kid Goal:

Nature Scavenger Hunt - Make a list of things to find in nature such as a pine cone, bug, leaf etc. Once your child has collected all of the items, do something fun with each thing (example: make a birdfeeder out of the pine cone, do crayon rubbings of the leaf, ect;)

Happy Husband Goal:

Massage time! There's nothing wrong with the traditional body parts we may focus our attention on. But if there's one thing that couples crave more and more as the relationship grows, it's non-sexual touch - touching that's sensual without a touch of sexual.
Give your partner regular foot massages (without being prompted), and my bet is that other kinds of touching will increase. Dramatically.

Happy House Goal:

It's about time to clean out that oven of yours! I'm sure most of you have the "self cleaning" ones, but we all know it's not entirely true. You'll have to endure a smelly house for a bit, and do a little scrubbing, but the result will make you happy. Here's a tip for the future though: To clean up spills in your oven, sprinkle the spills immediately with salt. When the oven has cooled, brush away the burnt-on food with a damp sponge. It will sweep off much easier!

Dinner Tonight:

Steak Fajitas

(I make these with left over steak meat!)

1 lb of flank steak or skirt steak
1 large yellow onion, peeled and sliced with the grain, not against the grain as one would normally slice an onion. Slice first in half, and then slice off sections a half inch wide at widest point.
2 large bell peppers (I usually use one red and one green,) stemmed, seeded, de-ribbed, sliced lengthwise into half-inch wide strips
Marinade:
Juice of 1 lime2
Tablespoons of olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled, minced
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
optional: 1/2 fresh Jalapeño pepper, seeded, ribs removed, finely chopped (be careful not to touch your eyes or anywhere near your eyes after handling a Jalapeño pepper!)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, including stems

Mix all marinade ingredients.

Set the steak in the marinade and let it sit at least an hour, the longer the better.

Heat to high heat a large cast iron pan or griddle. Add a teaspoon of olive oil to the pan. Add the steak, frying on each side for 3 minutes, or to desired doneness. 3 minutes per side will yield approximately medium rare doneness for an average cut of flank steak. If pan starts to smoke too much, reduce the heat to medium high. We want the steak browned, not burned. Remove from pan and let sit for 5 minutes.Reduce the pan heat to medium high. Add a little more oil to the pan if necessary. Add the onions, bell peppers. Cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes, until the onions are slightly translucent.Slice the meat against the grain into thin slices. If you slice the meat at a slanted angle, you will be able to get your slices pretty thin. Flank steak is flavorful but can be a little tough, so thin slices will really help make it easier to eat.
Serve immediately with shredded cheese, salsa. shredded iceberg lettuce, sour cream, guacamole and warm flour tortillas. (Hint for warming tortillas - put in microwave over a paper towel for 20 seconds on high heat.)

Today's Pep Talk

A few days ago, I got overwhelmed. There was so much to do. My house was a disaster, my kids were rowdy, my baby was crying, I had 8 or 9 loads of laundry to do, dinner to make......AAAAAAAUGH! I admit it, I almost lost it. I wanted to sit down on the floor in the kitchen and just cry. In fact, I pretty much did just that. Then, out of nowhere, a little voice in the back of my head said "It's okay, Karyn; just take it one step at a time."

One step at a time. That's all we have to do. Don't look at the whole, huge, messy picture and get discouraged. I sat there for a minute longer, thinking. And then, I decided that this smart voice in my head (I swear it couldn't have been me!) was right. All I had to do was take it slowly.

So this is what I did:

I started with my kids first. I got them under control, fed the baby (with my eyes closed so I wouldn't see and worry about the mess) and sent the kids outside to play.

Then I just started at the back of my house and worked forward, piece by piece. Within an hour or so, I had my whole house pretty much clean, had several loads of laundry done, and I knew what I was going to do for dinner. I know I still need to work on this, but I thought I'd share it as a reminder to us all.....

Just take it one little baby step at a time!