Ifs, Ands, or Buts, Just Because: Secret Subject Swap

 

Welcome a Secret Subject Swap. This month 5 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. Read through mine and at the bottom you’ll find links to all of today’s other Secret Subject participants.

 

 

My subject is: Tell us something that we don't know about you. 

It was submitted by: Rena of Wandering Web Designer.

 

 

 

You'd think this would be a very easy prompt to speak to. You'd be wrong. 

Here's the thing: I've been blogging for a long time now. Perhaps you know that. If you've been along with me for the ride, I thank you. But you also know quite a lot about me. When I started blogging, my youngest was in middle school, both of my sons are now adults. You've been through a lot with me over the years when it comes to the boys, from College Boy's stitches between the eyes and setting my car on fire to PurDude breaking his leg while 10 hours away. You've seen me honor College Boy on his 18th birthday, and when PurDude turned 21, and I took you on a tour of PurDude's first home, which I furnished and decorated in one weekend. 

Through the years you've supported me through yearly remembrances of the loss of my brother to cancer, to the more recent losses of my father to Alzheimer's, my former step-sister's suicide, to flying home for my mom's surgery, and my own excruciating three months long boxing match with shingles.

I've not been shy about sharing my thoughts on my infertility and loss, how I value friendships, but take no crap. I'm an open book on the topics of marriage in general, and about gay marriage, about religion, about politics, about race, life lessons and being a work in progress, and even about visits from beyond. I've traveled extensively, had two diverse careers, as Director of Social Services and a Retail Buyer, and shared that neither of which used my organizational skills, negotiating skills or stamina as much as being a parent.

I've been so grateful to have you follow me around the interwebs as I've been published all over the place from friends' blogs, to websites like BluntMoms, Mamapedia and Scary Mommy to national sites like TODAY Parents, the Daily Meal, and Huffington Post, and in multiple book anthologies.

And, of course, you know I use recipe development to exercise my brain, stave off anxiety, and express my (admittedly very limited) creativity. And that I feel that sharing the results is incredibly gratifying, but most importantly an expression of love.

Mocha Vanilla Coffee Bombs

My point is that pretty much everything I've been willing to share, I already have. Which leaves what? My shoe size (7), my height (5 feet), my weight (not the 102 I used to weigh), my hair (curly), and my lashes (long). But I suppose those aren't the kind of bland facts you were looking for me to divulge, are they? The intent of this prompt, I'm sure, is that I tell you something more consequential. 

 

Which basically leaves, to my deep chagrin, something I've chosen not to share.

Confession time, right? OK.

 

I often don't like to cook. If I have a new recipe in mind, it's fun to try it out. But on days when I don't and I just have to make dinner . . . not my idea of fun, more like a chore.

I don't like blogging trends. I've never said this before because I didn't want anyone to feel attacked, but I remember when it was all the rage for mom bloggers to call their kids "assholes." And although it was semi in jest, a sharp way to make a point, it was always just in poor taste to me. I'm hyper-vigilant about the fact that whatever I put out there stays out there. I have a blog post that's been in my drafts since I started blogging. It's about something that cut me to the core, ripped me to shreds, broke me. The story isn't all mine though, and despite having permission to post it, I don't because I'm so afraid that either I or, even worse, the other person, may want to take it back at some point. Maybe some day I'll press "publish," but 9 years later, not yet.

I'm a rule follower. I've learned to embrace spelling and punctuation errors, lessons of the past sacrificed to texting, and grammar rules sacrificed to a more conversational writing style. Not complaining, I like it. I even start sentences with "and," "but," and "because" now, although I can't shake the feeling that it's wrong. But (see that) I cannot deal with apostrophe errors, that's where I draw the line. Turning a plural into a possessive isn't about shortening words in a text, it's about not understanding the difference, which is actually a simple concept. If there is a meme that I absolutely love, think is hysterical or prophetic or whatever, if there is an errant apostrophe in it, I won't share it, I just can't.

 

You notice I didn't call myself the "grammar Nazi," although I fit the criteria according to the pop culture definition.

 

That's because I cannot stand the common use of the title Nazi, it makes me cringe. I believe that when you start normalizing a term like Nazi, use it to describe any transgression, you diminish the level of horror that label does, and should, convey. It's grossly disrespectful not only the 6 million who suffered unthinkable torture then died horrific deaths, but to the scar it left on history. I used the term once about 5 years ago in a post on my FB page about the parallels between Hitler and trump (I deliberately don't capitalize his name as a symbol of disrespect), an appropriate analogy, if I do say so myself. trump's reign of terror and attempted coup proved my point. If we are to abhor this magnitude of depravity, never forget both the atrocities and the level of complicity of the cult-like masses, we must not muddy it. No ifs, ands, or buts, it's a moral obligation that the title Nazi only be used in the most egregious, inhumane circumstances where those devoid of morals and values and humanity itself seize power. Like Hitler. And trump.  

Oh, and one more thing I think it's important to tell you right now. There are things I am, and there are things I'm not. I'm exceedingly organized, my home is neater than it is clean, I'm a micromanager, I can get lost in a soap box moment (see above), but I'm not, I swear to you I'm definitely not, anywhere near as self-absorbed as the first half of this blog post makes me sound.

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:

Wandering Web Designer 

Part-time Working Hockey Mom 

Climaxed 

The Crazy Mama Llama

Mocha Vanilla Coffee Bombs       

                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients (makes 5):  

1/4 cup Nutella

2 TBSP hot cocoa mix

2 TBSP French vanilla flavored powdered coffee creamer

1 oz red candy melts

1 oz white almond bark

1 TBSP red colored sugar

 

hot brewed coffee

 

Directions:
*Place a piece of parchment paper or wax paper into the freezer.

*Mix together the Nutella, hot cocoa mix, and French vanilla creamer. Using wet hands, form into 5 balls, and place on the parchment paper in the freezer for 1/2 hour.

*Melt the red candy melts and white almond bark in a shallow mug in the microwave at 15 second intervals until smooth when stirred.

*Remove the Nutella balls and parchment paper from the freezer. Place a Nutella ball into the melted bark, roll to coat, remove by placing a knife underneath, slide off the knife onto the parchment paper on the counter, and sprinkle with colored sugar. Repeat with remaining balls. Allow to set for 15 minutes. 

*To  serve, place one Mocha Vanilla Coffee Bomb into a mug. Pour hot brewed coffee into the mug and stir to melt the bomb and incorporate the flavors into the coffee.