Take that Martha Stewart, and you too Dr. Laura!

If you knew me in real life you would know that my family survives on a diet of frozen pizza, chicken nuggets, mac and cheese and hot dogs. If you can reheat it in under 5 minutes, I will serve it. I am also a big fan of the 'breakfast for dinner' meal: "You want cold cereal and Eggos for dinner? You got it!"

I am not a planner, and honestly don't care to be. I am a coupon shopper and I can snag great deals on frozen meals and Hamburger Helper, and so that is what we eat. Path of least resistance. I definitely don't have my act together enough to meal plan along with couponing and as long as I can serve up some SteamFresh Veggies (best invention ever by the way, if you haven't tried them you can get a coupon here) and high fiber something-or-other I feel pretty good about serving a couple baked chicken nuggets. Balance is in the eye of the beholder.

However I am always hearing about moms who don't work having a hot meal on the table when their husbands arrive home, and thanks to innuendos by people like that bitch Dr. Laura, it seems like that is the "right way" to do things. (In case you were unaware there is supposedly a right way to Care for and Feed your Husband.)

So you will understand my pride when I can actually get a honest-to-goodness balanced dinner on the table after working a full day. It is no small feat in my house.

Well, today I am proud to report, was one of those days! I actually had the foresight to defrost a sirloin steak before I left for work and I was able to slap that baby on the grill, whip up some Au Gratin potatoes and of course there were SteamFresh broccoli crowns. Voila! A real meal of meat and potatoes, oh how Martha Stewartesque! Warm and plated just in time for LabDad to walk through the door. Even had time to clean up and start the dishwasher, I was lovin' life!

Now normally this success (and feeling of sunshine and rainbows) would be quickly squelched when The Princess would scrunch up her nose and slide the plate away asking "Can I have an Eggo instead?" but tonight was different! Oh yes, both LabDad and The Princess scarfed down the steak, potatoes and broccoli like they had just come off the latest season of Survivor. SUCCESS!

So take that Dr. Laura. Us working moms can be kick-ass domestic goddesses as well. Now I just have to work on the fact that "babies need love not daycare." Oh Bite Me!

Heigh-ho, heigh-ho...

Well, all good things must come to an end and that includes Christmas vacation. Mondays after a long weekend (or in this case a long ten days) are always rough, both for me and the kids. Today it was all the worse since we are coming off that Christmas high.

I didn't have drop-off duty this morning (thank God!) since I knew it was going to be ugly. The email from LabDad seemed to sum it up: "The Princess cried like I was killing puppies." I knew she wasn't going to want to go, but she had to be dragged kicking and screaming. Mornings like that just suck. I know she is fine, and by the time I drop off The Peanut and return to peep in the window she is usually deep in play, but it still makes me a little sad.

Fortunately today was not my turn to drop off so I didn't have to witness the puppy killing scene. Instead, at that very moment, I was knee deep in over 600 email messages (most of which were some sort of "Last Minute Holiday Sale!!!" spam) which I needed to wade through.

I have been out of lab for 10 days, while the rest of The Crew were still in lab hard at work waiting for vacation to begin. I had the pleasure of coming back to a desk peppered with post-it notes asking for me to order one-thing-or-another and to check on this-and-that when I got a second.

No problem.

I also had quite a bit of paperwork to catch up on, I was on the phone with tech support about some broken equipment (umm yeah, most of those people were still on vacation based on my hold times) and I needed to get some prep work done for my upcoming experiments. Busy busy busy. At least it made the day fly by.

The good news was that there were only a few other people around, so my day was relatively uninterrupted. That is a lab manager's Utopia: an empty lab. It is extremely rare that I can go a whole day without at least 5-10 breaks to stop and deal with some crisis. Today I did get stopped three times from various lab members (and even two people from other labs) but nothing I couldn't recover from.

I was in the zone.

4:30 rolled around in no time and I was off to pick up my girls. I think the ride home from work is my favorite time of the day. Done with lab and time to let mommy mode kick in. Usually my mind is racing with what I am going to make for dinner and what needs to be done at home, all while keeping my eyes glued to the dashboard clock with my fingers crossed that traffic is good and I get to daycare with time to spare. (Nobody wants to be the bad mommy who gets there last.)

Today's drive home was a little different. I wasn't thinking about dinner or chores. I was listening to the Dave Ramsey Show podcast on my iPod. I usually listen to podcasts during my work day as well as during my walk to the parking lot from my office (about 15 minutes.) For some reason, today I was really into it and so I left them on for the ride home. But my eyes were still glued to the clock. Nothing can distract me from my fear of being late.

I love pick-up duty! (It kicks ass compared to drop-off duty.) I love to stand in the window and just observe The Princess. There is nothing better then when she meets my gaze and lights up when she realizes I am there. She usually comes rushing over, "mommmmmyyyy!" with great big hugs. Ahh, bliss! The Peanut is starting to grin when I walk through the door as well. What a thrill. It is so nice to see that excitement, with us all looking forward to the evening ahead.

Those moments alone make all the emails, post-it notes and never-ending tech support calls all worthwhile. But I still hate Mondays.

Christmas 2009: From the eyes of a mom

In a mere 7 minutes, Christmas 2009 will be in the history books.

Since becoming a mom Christmas has changed. It isn't the Christmas that I remember as a kid. It isn't about me anymore. Christmas is all about my kids. And I will confess that fact makes Christmas a little anti-climatic. I am betting very few mothers would be willing to admit that, since as a mom this is how it is supposed to be. We are supposed to love making our children happy and all the work that goes along with it. So why don't I love it?

Don't get me wrong, I definitely got more joy out of seeing the smiles on my children's faces then in opening the gifts for myself, but it isn't the same kind of excitement and anticipation that I remember. Magically awaking to stuffed stockings and presents under the tree. That magic is gone.

As a kid, Christmas energized me. Maybe I was just hyped up on sugar and massive pile of gifts under the tree, but whatever the reason that isn't true anymore. Now I just feel wiped out in the aftermath of Christmas. As I sit here, I realize that I wasn't able to take it all in. I was too busy being distracted by the minutia and nerve grating prep work that goes along with pulling off a successful Christmas instead of living in the moment with the unadulterated joy and excitement of my childhood.

I also have that never ending mommy-guilt. Christmas has come to a close and I still have a laundry list of things I wished I had done differently. Maybe that is where the problem lies. My perspective has changed. Instead of seeing everything that did happen, I find myself focusing on what didn't.

I wish I had taken more pictures.
I wish I had gotten that other gift.
I wish I made gingerbread houses.
I wish that I could have put up more decorations.
I wish we had gone to see Santa...
.... blah, blah, blah.
Really what I am saying is: I wish I could have been that perfect mom.

And that is the fatal flaw. To my kids, I already am the perfect mom! I need to tell myself that to my children the magic is still there, and I am responsible for it. My love for them is all that matters, and once again I need to cut myself a break. They don't care we didn't make gingerbread houses, or visit Santa or get that other gift, they were thrilled and excited with Christmas the way it was. And in reality, even my childhood Christmases weren't perfect, but thanks to my mom I didn't realize it, I only remember the joy.

So next year I vow to see Christmas through their eyes, oblivious to anything other than the pure thrill of the season. I won't sweat the small stuff, and one thing will remain the same from my childhood: My kids will be surrounded by people who love and care about them and who want them to be happy. That will be the new definition of Christmas joy.

Christmas Eve.. Why am I blogging?

The presents are under the tree, the stockings are filled and the rest of the house is quiet. So why am I not in bed? Because it is only 10:30.. when you calculate that in mommy hours it is practically mid-day! My typical after-hours internet haunts are quiet and so I have a few moments to reflect on the holidays of 2009.

So what am I taking away from it this year? A few things come to mind.

1) I love holiday food.
The more sugar and butter-laden the better. Cookies and cakes and pies, oh my! I am looking forward to our family holiday traditional dinner tomorrow. Porkchops and dumplings. But not your typical "chicken and dumplings" dumplings. NO! The always fabulous, and accurately nicknamed GLUE-BALLS. Yep, glueballs. Yum. Now since I know that description leaves you hungry let me share the recipe

Peel and quarter a bunch o' potatoes.
Put in blender with enough water to make a pasty pinkish-gray slurry.
Add slurry to flour to form sticky paste like dough.
Drop in boiling water until they are rubbery and firm yet slimy.
Enjoy!

Yes, they are strangely nasty, but boy do I love them. Maybe it is the familiarity of eating them every year, on the plate next to dried out pork chops that could pass for shoe leather and sauerkraut that tastes like the inside of an aluminum can, but I just look forward to it every year! I can't help myself.

2) My kids don't need more stuff.
I seriously cut waaaay back this year, we are saving up to buy a new car and so I was even more scrooge-like with my budget this year. I didn't even really shop. I cleaned out the closets of old toys I had squirreled away on sale and bought one big item (a doll house) but that is about it. So, why am I overlooking a sea of gifts? Of course the family goes wild since these are the only grandchildren on both sides, and kids toys are cheap. You can fill a shopping cart for 100$, plus the are so bulky: all those cheap plastic whatchamacallits, it just looks like a lot. Honestly, I am dreading the day my kid's wish lists are composed of iPods and Coach purses, since I can't distract them with my filler items that take up a lot of space for little moola!

3) Christmas card letters are a fine balancing act.
As I read through the various letters that have come to the house, I can definitively say there are four schools of christmas card letters

A. Non-existent. This is composed of the easy "just sign the card and move on it with" type as well as the even less personal "preprinted our name on the photo so we don't have to write anything" genre. Eh, I understand it. I would rather get this than nothing, but a few words about what is going on wouldn't kill you.

B. The short-n-sweet. This is my favorite letter type. Stick to the facts, no elaborating, just births, deaths, family moves, and major life changes. What I actually want to know. I always hope to be a short-n-sweet writer. But it is a fine balancing act. Now that I have kids I have to make a conscious effort to not fall into any category C:

C. The family self-promoter. These letters are filled with how wonderful the members of the family are. Usually it is about their children or grandchildren but some people even talk about their wonderful spouses as if they were destined for sainthood. The worst part of these letters is that now that I am a parent I no longer believe the stories I hear about other people's kids. No your child is not spelling 11-letter words in Swahili while playing the violin at Space Camp. I.don't.believe.you. Give it up. When you child is nominated for a Nobel, Pulitzer, Grammy, Peabody.. THEN you can tell me about his advanced skills. I understand that kids do have hobbies, but I don't need a laundry list straight out of your day-timer. Pick a few things and move on.

D. The shoot-me-in-the-head-since-I-can't-read-one-more-sentence run on monstrosities. You know them. They put every little detail of every single event that ever happened to them. This includes but is not limited to detailed descriptions of medical procedures ("Uncle Jerry finally had that ingrown toenail removed, and thank goodness since it was black and pus filled for the last few months. Merry Christmas!") or detailed emotional descriptions of pets/children/inanimate objects, ("Our favorite toaster took it's last breath this fall. It had served us well, warming our toast for the past few years, it will be sorely missed") or overly vivid descriptions of meaningless occurrences ("On our way up to grandma's we stopped at a rest area. They had really nice recycling bins.")
You can immediately spot a run on letter.. usually the font is teenie tiny and the letter is two sided or *gasp* more than one page! And sometimes they must squeeze in a dozen photos as well. Just in case you wondered what Uncle Jerry's ingrown toenail, their favorite toaster or that nice recycling bin may look like.

So, as I sit here, that is my reflection on Christmas 2009, at least so far. I am sure once the torn wrapping paper clears I will have more to say, but until then MERRY CHRISTMAS! Where are those cookies?

Post one: A little background.

Who am I?

I'm a mom, I'm a scientist, I'm a nerd, I'm a girly-girl, I'm a wife, I'm a couch potato, I'm cranky, I'm a foodie..I'm so many things. I guess the right answer is: It's complicated.

Why am I blogging?

I have actually been blogging for a while now, but that is only for my girls. But I don't want to include the every day mumbo-jumbo in my blog for them, so I thought I would spin-off into a public blog. One that is more generic, and probably a lot more interesting to anyone other than them.

What is the toughest job you'll ever love?

That depends on what kind of day I am having. Some days I can't wait to leave the house, and other days I am heartbroken to be pulled away from my little girls. My job (both as a mother and my full-time paying gig) are a huge part of my life. That is why I titled this blog the way I did. It probably will become a reoccurring topic, so I may as well not fight it.

Why are you reading this?

Good question. Why are you reading this? Beats me! I hope at least you can have a little fun!