Life Under Construction

I took the summer and holidays off this year to figure some things out about my life and how to live it best. I believe I have been shown the tools to make this happen right and permanently. I had such an interesting roller coaster of a day I'm finding it hard to process it all. What I do know is that I was shown something today. I'm not sure how to explain that well. I believe that circumstances arose that lead me to my intended destination in life. If you have read anything about the law of attraction, I believe I have experienced that today in such a profound way that I'm not sure I fully understand what happened.

I am going to continue my path here and hopefully the truth with be revealed to me about my wonderfully confusing day....

Peace be with you and all of your efforts,
Sarazann

hmmm.....

Frito Mac Recipe

This is a very easy dinner you can toss together in just about 30 minutes. Very few of my recipes take so little time, so relish in this one.

Prepare a box of macaroni and cheese. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

While the noodles are boiling, brown 1/2 pound of hamburger meat, drain grease very very well. Pat dry with paper towel.

In a deep baking pan, spray with non stick Crisco. Place finished mac, then cooked meat, add a can of Wolf chili, no beans. Top with crushed Fritos, sprinkle with shredded cheddar cheese and parsley. Place in oven for about 15 min, until the top is nicely browned.

Serve with a fresh salad and lots of napkins.

How to do everything perfectly...

Don't.
Life is to interesting to worry about all that crap. Be happy, mostly clean and smile for no reason. Most of all - stop complaining. You can really have a truly wonderful life if you just let it be wonderfully full of mistakes.
Peace and Love,
Sarazann

Pocket Change

Just a little laundry tip: Put a coin bank next to your washer. It's an easy place to catch all the loose change in the washer, dryer and pockets. I chose this extra elegant style of a Boba Fett M&M bank. He makes me smile every time I open the cabinet. :)

Peace and Love,
Sarazann

Proper Use of Covers When Breast Feeding

Check out Miss Mayim's blogging about breast feeding. She's just so wonderful. :)

As any educated person can tell you breastfeeding is the way to go. I would have done it, but my body did not produce milk. It is a hormonal anomaly. I was sad to miss out on that part of raising my baby, however, I am still a die hard proponent of nursing. This is the best was to place a cover when feeding in public.

Simply tie around the offendee's face and tell him to turn around three times, and jump backwards until he grows up. The fact that women anywhere have been asked to stop feeding their children simply horrifies me. I do not eat in a toilet, why should my child? Why should any child be asked to go to another room to have dinner. People claim it's a civilized society. Great, we can see a man's naked flesh all over the beach, asses hanging out of swim suits, blood and gore, liposuction videos on daytime tv, but not a bare breast feeding a child in public. Is that really a freaking standard? I find it all just incredibly boring. Women are made to care for their children. Babies need to eat. Feed them. It's just that simple. No argument needed. If you don't like breastfeeding, don't watch it. If you don't want to be around it. Leave. If you don't want it in your business, I dare you to put up a sign telling mother's not feed their children on your premises. Go ahead, it's your property. I'd say you would lose more business with the policy than just letting mothers be mothers.

If you are a mom feeding her child, you are doing everything right.

Anyone who gives you grief, stares, curses or childish mocking, even those that ask you to leave or relocate - tell them this "You there, close your eyes and walk away. I will not have my child exposed to your kind of hate. I am a mother. You are an idiot and I don't want your stupidity clouding my perfect motherly meal here. By the way I have the police on speed dial here, Say one more word to me and I'm going to have them here. Didn't you know, it has been ruled legal for mothers to feed their children anywhere they please!" If you are anything like me you would add in a caustic "Dipshit!" on the end there but, you know, it's up to you.

Peace and Love, 

Sarazann

Black Bean Chicken Recipe

This is a slow cooker recipe that feeds armies for very little.

Prepping the beans: Pour a bag (1 lb) of black beans in a colander and rinse thoroughly. Place the beans in a bowl, stir them gently. Skim off all the beans and pieces that float on top of the water. Pour out the water. Add very hot tap water and let them soak over night. The beans will almost triple in size so make sure you have put them in a bowl big enough to accommodate.

The Next Day, Gather your ingredients:

2 lbs Frozen Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast

(A bag tends to be a pound of food. Measurements are not exact, it's a stew, put what you want in it.) 

1 bag Frozen Carrots
1 bag Frozen Corn
1 bag Frozen Green Beans
1 bag Frozen Snap Peas
1 bag of Prepped Black Beans
4 Chicken Bullion Cubes
1 tsp Red Chilies
1 chopped, small Onion
Season to taste - Garlic Powder, Seasoned Salt, Black Pepper, Parsley, Basil, Cilantro.
1/4 cup Sweet Baby Ray's Barbecue Sauce

Toss everything in the Crock Pot set on High for 4 hours.
I have this 6 quart version. It's big and wonderful. I love it. You can pick one up at Target for about $45.00

About 20 minutes before you are ready to eat, take the chicken out. Put the chicken into a bowl and shred it with two forks- ripping them in opposite directions. Add about three squirts of Ray's Sauce, until the chicken is coated but not swimming in it. 

Next, Drain most of the juice from the crock pot into a pot on the stove. Make gravy.

Gravy: Boil drippings on high for about 10 minutes to condence the flavor. Sift in about 1/4 cup of tortilla four. Whisk gravy until it starts to thicken. Turn heat down to low and stir frequently for another 6 minutes.

On a plate place veg, top with gravy. Add shredded chicken and slice of Challah Bread. 

It does take some time to prepare this meal. But it takes a long time to make great food. As any Jew knows, more time, more love put in, and it's the love that makes it so very tasty. :)

Peace and Love, 

Sarazann

Retrospective Posting

I am not used to blogging. It's kind of a different mindset. After I do these things I think, damn, I should have taken pictures and posted about that. Here we are, days later, after so many projects completed and no pictures and no post about it. It's a shame really. I started this blog to help folks like myself, who spend all day trying to improve - well, most everything. I will be making some posts later that will explain my projects this week and try to recreate the pictures. We played some awesome games with the girls this weekend and had some great food. I made a couple of household helpers and decorated a bit. All of this to follow in simple explanatory fashion.

Peace and Love,
Sarazann

Music and Math

http://ed.ted.com/lessons/music-and-math-the-genius-of-beethoven-natalya-st-clair

My Day with the Girls.

My oldest friend has two daughters, both are staying the weekend with me. It's a girl free for all. I hope Caleb and Jones can survive it. Caleb rolled around on the floor with everyone before he left for work. He even helped out and made the bed for me. He's such a trooper. Xavia had a wild screaming time making a blanket fort and drawing. We all had a nice dinner, my mom stayed too, so it was a real Shabbat tonight with family and friends. After all that we settled in to play Life and watch Signs while we all wind down for bed. It rained all day and the windows were open to let in the fresh air. I got the back bathroom cleaned out, now the house feels cool, smells great and is very nice and clean for everyone. It was a really great day! Shabbat Shalom everyone, have a wonderful night.

Peace and Love,
Sarazann

Square for Every Business

If you haven't heard of it yet, go get yourself a Square. It's free and awesome for everyone and every business. The ice cream shop down the street from us processes all of their credit cards through the Square. Get one, use it - it's great.

Perfect Cookie for You!

This is a bit of a re-blog, however, I will try these recipes out tmw with the girls and let you know how it came out. Until then, check this cookie science out!

TED Cookies!

Peace and Love,
Sarazann

No Money for Netflix?

To be clear, I think everyone should have Netflix. However, sometimes it's hard to come up with the extra $8.64 per month. Yes, our budget gets that tight. My darling man found this great site online. All kinds of movies from around the world - all free and mostly no malware. My mom got this great internet security program called Viper off of QVC. It is a great program, gets all the nastiness before it hits my hard drive.

Peace and Love,
Sarazann

DIY Flavored Olive Oil

I love olive oil but the prices can get out of hand so I opt for the cheaper version and I get any flavor I want. Tonight I chose to make a spicy olive oil with jalapenos. It's super easy.

Start by saving an old oil bottle. I save all of my glass jars. It was just a matter of finding the one I wanted to use. However, if you don't have a million glass jars around you can go here for a new bottle, most importantly make sure you have a plastic dripper to fit your bottle.

Lay out a towel to catch the mess.

Gather your materials: Bottle

Funnel

Herbs (I like freeze dried for flavor)

Add dry ingredients to bottle. Use about 1 teaspoon each, more peppers for a hotter pallet. Remember Oregano is especially strong, be sparing - always err on the side of less.

I chose the cheaper brand of oil. It's up to you, but this is about saving money.

Fill the bottle almost to the top. 

.

The dry herbs will expand slightly and you need some room in the bottle to mix the ingredients.

Put the cap on then ...

Shake. Rattle and Roll! No, seriously, mix the hell out of it. You don't want the herbs clumping together.

Store in a cool dry place for about a week and enjoy! This much should last for some time. Mine usually makes it about two months. Here are some great recipes for your new olive oil. You can make specific oils for each meal. Let the fun begin!

Peace and Love, 

Sarazann

Game Night Success!

My significant other (we aren't married, but we are destined for each other) - Caleb, works three jobs and still tucks our daughter into bed every night. He is super amazing. He told me he would like more time to game and screw. So, tonight I made sure a game and dinner were ready when he got home. He only has an hour of down time between jobs so it's a tight fit for anything fun. It went very well. Jones (our Manny) and I set up Pirate's of the Caribbean Life and we had stroganoff leftovers for dinner. The game went very well for Caleb. I couldn't seem to hold on to any of my money. Damn Calypso!!! Good night for everyone. Xavia even made it to bed at a decent hour tonight. She's off the bottle for about two weeks now, so bedtimes have been rough. I'll work on more time to screw tomorrow. :)
Peace and Love,
Sarazann

You can get the game here. We picked it up at Savers for $2.00, great place to find board games!!!
The Beef Stroganoff Recipe, make a double serving toss in the fridge for quick meal nights.
Tips to get the baby off the bottle.

Amazing Artist!

This is Paul. He is amazing and sadly not with us anymore. I'm not sure if his art is for sale anywhere but it should be.

Our Funny English

I'm making sure my last post is spelled correctly. I used the word console. I know how to spell this word and I know what it means yet when reading it all I could think of was my mom's huge console tv. I was sure I was spelling the wrong word so I looked it up. Console, homonyms are funny. The word means both and spelled the same. Which is super confusing if you have to sit on the console to console your kid.

Peace and Love,
Sarazann

Automated Systems Can Hear My Daughter

I took to the business of the house today and started arranging bills and menus. I had to push the date for the electric payment so I called them up for a payment arrangement. It's a fancy not so new phone service where you can just talk into the machine and it magically hears what you are saying and does what you asked. Sounds great right? Well, the moment it became my turn to speak my little girl started crying. I'm juggling trying to keep the receiver away from her crying and console her between account information. I was trying not to lose my considerable progress through this blasted machine. But, I failed. Her cries started taking me on some wild ride through this system and I just had no idea what I was agreeing to. I hung up. I cuddled the baby. She was chasing the fat cat and she cornered him, and he swatted at her hand. Nothing severe, just a slight red mark on her hand. She never learns her lesson and Kevin Pollack (aka fat cat) will always give her a reason to give chase.

Tip of the Day: Don't use voice activated automated computer systems when you have a fat cat and a 2 year old. :)

Peace and Love,
Sarazann

To Tablet or not to Tablet

Some back story before I get on my soapbox ... recently I was given an awesome android tablet by my uncle. (super awesome uncle I have there!) As I discovered this wonderful new toy, I found that there were a lot of apps available for babies to play. I read a few articles, talk to my pediatrician and a couple more doctors, one nutritionist (she was just a smart lady, not sure what nutrition has to do with this) - They all told me that with limited exposure it shouldn't be a problem for my 18 month old baby to play games on the tablet. So, here we go. I felt trepidation at first, only letting her play one counting game a day then I watched her manipulate this piece of machinery. It was like she already knew what to do with it. She was teaching me things about my tablet. She now has her own page on the android and plays her games once a day after bath for about an hour. She loves it. She learns so quickly and knows how to get into and out of her games. It still amazes me how well she uses it. So, I am all for tablet use. As long as rules are followed, only one hour a day and never at the dinner table. She is over two years old now and works the tablet very well. I assume she will be using these in college so I guess it's good to get used to it as soon as she can. Computers are part of life here in the states. So it's time we all learned how to use this junk, right?

Here is a list of games my 2 year old can play, maybe y'all should check them out.
Baby Toy
Hebrew Alphabet
Kid's Doodle
ABC Toddler
Bubbles
Toddler Count
Funny Dots
and of course Fruit Ninja!

Peace and Love,
Sarazann

I am Sarazann

I am a mother, a comic and caricature artist, and an awesome girlfriend. I make things. I make everything I can from great food to neat tools to awesome comic pages and so much more. Most of all I do my best to make my family happy. Here you will find my little projects, my big ideas, some comics I'm working on and all the motherly advice I can muster. I hope I can help.
Peace and Love,
Sarazann