Take 2 – May Secret Subject Swap

Welcome to another Secret Subject Swap. This week, 11 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts.

Here are the links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts. Sit back, grab a cup and check them all out. See you there.

Baking In A Tornado
The Insomniac's Dream
Dinosaur Superhero Mommy
The Pursuit of Normal
The Momisodes
Searching for Sanity
Black Sheep Mom
Moore Organized Mayhem
Daily Dose of Damn
Tiny Steps Mommy
Mom Rants and Comfy Pants

My subject is Do you play an instrument? If so what kind and how often? OR have you ever played? It was submitted  by: Moore Organized Mayhem.

Here goes:
When I was in Middle School, I learned to play the guitar. Well, barely. My Mom bought me a guitar and had a friend teach me to play. I couldn’t read music, but I learned chords and I could strum my way through a song or two. Aerosmith, Boston, J. Geils, none of them came calling. I never got over it.

So I decided that my kids would at least try playing an instrument, and while they were young. I wanted them to learn to read music and have some basic knowledge. So the first time that the public schools offered lessons, I took advantage of it. In third grade, the school offered Orchestra. Wouldn’t have been my choice of a place to start, but we went with it. I told my older son that I wanted him to give it a try for one year, then he could make his own decision.

I was really excited when the school called to say they had an instrument for us to rent. The rules were that the instrument went to school twice a week for lesson day, then came home in between for practice. Practice had to be at least 20 minutes a day and I had to sign off on each day. Cool. We could do that.

The Instrument? A String Bass. That thing was as tall as I am. And heavy. So twice a week I sent my kids out the front door and waved to them as they walked to school with the rest of the neighborhood kids. And then I got in the car to drive the Bass to school. OK, there is something seriously wrong with this picture.

Then later in the day, after lessons were over, I had to go back to the school and pick it up and drive it home so it would be there for practice. OMG, practice. That turned into a moral dilemma. Do I teach my young kids to cheat and lie? Or, as I’m in the kitchen making dinner, am I really going to listen to 2 notes played over and over for 20 minutes? Daily.

Homemade Marinara

The next year, when my other son was in third grade, the orchestra teacher called me. She wanted to let me know that she had gotten me a second String Bass so both boys could play and we could leave one at the school for classes and keep one at home for practice. Perfect. Good things come to those who wait, right?

Hell, no. I had promised my older son that he only had to play for one year and he made it clear that he was done. I ended up driving it again. ANOTHER whole year of waving to the kids, having to get fully dressed (cause you don’t just drive a String Bass to school and leave it in the parking lot). In the snow, the rain. . .

So the extent of the musical ability my family has is on nights where I serve Baked Beans with dinner and the boys treat me to this chant:

“Beans, beans, the musical fruit. The more you eat, the more you toot.”

I think we’re going to have to chalk this one up to a Mom fail.

Homemade Marinara

Ingredients:

2 cans Stewed Tomatoes (must be stewed)

1 (6 oz) can tomato paste

3 TBSP olive oil

2 cloves minced garlic

1 tsp dried oregano

1 TBSP dried parsley

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 cup frozen chopped onion

1/2 cup dry white wine

2 tsp brown sugar

Directions:

*Process stewed tomatoes, tomato paste, olive oil, garlic, oregano, parsley, salt, pepper and onion in a food processor until mostly smooth.

*Move to a large pan and add the wine and brown sugar.

*Bring just to a boil on medium heat, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

Virginia is the new Furt

 *Please note that this post was edited to add an award. It's posted at the end.

We all know about food fads; those recipes or ingredients that everyone seems to be using and making all at the same time. Salted Caramel was one and Kale another. Like that song you liked until they played it every 5 minutes on the radio, you get to the point where you’ve had enough for a while. There’s nothing wrong with those recipes, in fact, they’re great. I’m just not going to make one every day.

Well, in the humor blogging world there are fads as well; those subjects that everyone seems to be addressing. The first one I was really cognizant of was . . . umm . . . let’s just say the never-ending discussion of odiferous “furts”.

It seemed everyone had something to say about furts. I read about baby’s furts, dog’s furts, husband’s furts. People shared deliberate furts and accidental, clean furts and dirty, private furts and public. Blogs, FB, Twitter, it was all furts all the time. Front door, back door, here a furt, there a furt, EVERYWHERE a furt, furt.

I went to college and I never knew that there was that much to know about furts. I’m sure there was a class. I must have missed it.

But look out furts, “virginia” has come to the blogging world and she’s quickly become the center of attention. We’ve gone from barely hearing about her (thank you for that, by the way) to being unable to escape her (ouch). She is, without a doubt, the new “Miss Popularity”.

Now I have, and still do, read about the occasional “sticks and stones”, mostly in posts about baby boys, but nothing like this current obsession with virginias. I’m reading about their size (pre and post birth), shapes and habits, their exercise regimen, their grooming options and haircuts, their clothing choices and jewelry too. About 95% of the bloggers I read have a virginia and lately so many are letting them all hang out (yikes).

Hell, I never EVER thought I would, and  I’ve just written a whole post on furts and virginias.

But in the name of full exposure disclosure, I just want to apologize in advance. If “virginia” is the new “furt” and we’re heading into the summer of the virginia, then all of my friends with vlogs (video blogs), I’m sorry. But that’s a place where this girl is just not gonna go.

*There’s no recipe here today. I tried but really, what exactly goes with furts and virginias?




 
Addendum to this post:
My friend The Insomniac's Dream created a new award and bestowed the honor upon me. She assigned a prompt and asks that I:
*write about the prompt
*link back to the blog that assigned me the prompt
*pick 5 new recipients and assign them a prompt of my choice
*be sure the blogger who presented me with this award is given a link to this post to see what I did with her prompt

What I was assigned to discuss is: "Original ideas: are there any more?"  Quite honestly, this post is exactly how I would approach that subject, so I'm calling it accomplished.

The prompt I'm assigning is: If you could take over any blog for one day, what  one would you choose and why?
The bloggers I'm nominating are: 
The Insomniac's Dream yes, she said I could!
The Pursuit of Normal
Daily Dose of Damn
Evil Joy Speaks 
Mom Rants and Comfy Pants
as I always say with these things, awards are about recognition, not obligation. I hope you decide to play, but the choice is yours.

Take 1- May Secret Subject Swap

Welcome to Take One of May’s Secret Subject Swaps. This week, 12 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts.

Here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts. Sit back, grab a cup, and check them all out. See you there:

Baking In A Tornado
Chewylicious
Just A Little Nutty
Follow me home . . .
Stacy Sews and Schools
A Working Mom's "Whoas"
The Sadder But Wiser Girl
Menopausal Mother
Dates 2 Diapers
Akashic Aisles: The Basement View
They Call Me Mummy
Evil Joy Speaks

My subject is: You just saved someone’s life! You are a hero! Tell us all about it. It was submitted by: Follow me home . . .

Before you read my post, I just want to say how much I love Shellybean. She was the very first blogger to befriend me and has read every word I’ve written ever since. I’m afraid that after she reads how I completely mangled her wonderful prompt she’ll never speak to me again, so I just wanted to go on the record.

Stop the life you save may be your own. . . (Jackson Five)
Oh wait, that’s not “life” that’s “love”. Nevermind.

So it all started like this:
It’s something unpredictable, but in the end it’s right. I hope you had the time of your life . . . (Green Day)
I grew up like many little girls do: walking to school with the neighborhood kids, skipping rope, cookouts, ballet, days at the beach and learning to ski.

It’s my life, it’s now or never. . .  (Bon Jovi)
When I hit the teen years, I hit them hard. Loud music, late nights, minimal school work, one word answers to parents, concert, fast cars. But I was young, carefree, and consequences were for other people.

Life in the fastlane, surely make you lost your mind . . . (Eagles)
But there’s only so long you can live that way. Oh, it was fun. I don’t regret a minute of it (the ones I remember, that is). But eventually I made my way out of college, into a job and damn, this little thing called responsibility (bills) started to cramp my style.

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy . . . (Queen)
And then there was always the fantasy of marrying, having children, white picket fence attached to the white picket fence of my best friend. Perfectly behaved kids, manicured nails, dinner parties, girls’ nights out.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream . . . (old folk song)
And at first it IS a dream. Life goes merrily on. We do buy a house, brown fence but we love it. My kids are very well behaved. Of course there are struggles, but these are good kids. I do get my nails done weekly, have dinner parties and girls’ nights out.

Squash Casserole

Obladi oblada life goes on . . . (Beatles)

But life goes on; kids go off to school, we move to a bigger house, husband changes jobs, I take a job then leave it when the kids are on summer break. Through it all we’re a family. We eat together, play together, spend time together.

Everybody’s got their dues in life to pay  . . .  (Aerosmith)

Now my kids are teens. When they hit the teen years, they hit them hard. Loud music, late nights, minimal school work, one word answers to parents, concerts, fast cars. But they are young, carefree, and consequences are for other people.

And I would have stayed up with you all night, had I known how to save a life . . . (The Fray)

And so I’m challenged. Do I pull the sheets up over my head and pretend I don’t know that all their choices won’t be good ones? Or do I find a way to cope:

cocktails, baking, blogging, Red Sox, mysteries, sudoku, beach, skiing, ballet, cocktails and cocktails.

So stop the life you save may be your own. Oh wait, that’s still not “life”, that’s still “love” . . . Nevermind.

 (My Mom’s) Squash Casserole

Ingredients:
2 – 3 summer squash
2 – 3 zucchini
4 tomatoes
seasoned bread crumbs
sliced mozzarella
salt
pepper
oregano
garlic powder
onion powder

Directions:
*NOTE* I’ve made this recipe in many different sized and shaped dishes. The amount of ingredients you need will depend on the size dish you use. In the picture above I used a 8 X 11 dish.
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease your pan.
*slice the squash, zucchini and tomatoes into about 1/2 inch rounds. Put a single layer of half of the squash in the bottom of the pan. You can cut pieces to fit, but don’t have to cover the whole bottom of the pan.
*Layer half of the zucchini slices over the squash. Sprinkle with salt, pepper,  oregano, garlic powder and onion powder.
*Layer half of the tomato slices over the seasonings, then sprinkle with seasoned bread crumbs.
*Cover with half of the cheese slices.
*Repeat all layers. Cover and bake for one hour.