Category Archives: food

right now all week, this week

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This week’s Focus 52 prompt was right now:

Keep your camera close this week and take a moment (or two or three!) to capture what you’re doing ‘right now’, right at that exact moment. And umm … keep it clean, will ya? heh. I think this could be an exercise where the technique of ‘just a glimpse’ would work quite well…Absolutely anything and/or everything you catch yourself doing this week could become your photo for week twenty two.
You could take this one step further too, if you’re so inclined. Pick a time of day, and take a photo of what you’re doing every single day this week at that same exact time.

Ever the over-achiever, little brown-noser I chose to go the one step further. My camera is always handy because I am the mamarazzi here under the Big Top. I decided to pick the five o’clock hour…okay, the five to somewhere around the six o’clock hour because there is always something going on in the early evening around here. Yes, the kids were absolutely thrilled that I was working on this project with camera in hand. Some were so thrilled they told me to NOT take their picture. Tempted…I was so tempted. But I respected their wishes…this time.

So here you are, right now under the Big Top this week.

Monday: National Burger Day this year just happened to fall on Memorial Day. You know, that day where everyone barbecues and celebrates Summer’s return after honoring those who gave all. Well, I had to work Monday night and my darling husband and daughter were laying wood floors all day so no barbecue for us. An In n Out double-double cheeseburger will do just fine thank you very much. It is also the perfect after 5 mile run meal…because I logged five miles before work that night.

Tuesday: It’s that time of year again! The end of year dance recital is almost upon us and Jodie and Hazel are so ready for this. It’s a good thing Hollie and I got our tickets when we did because they sold out in ONE DAY! Yes, dance mom crazy did rise up. So if Abby can’t get the afternoon off from work I wonder just how much that ticket would be worth?

Wednesday: The Avengers 3D, popcorn, licorice and Coca-Cola slushees with one of my favorite boys. Life is good. And The Mighty Thor is hot and remains my favorite Avenger! Daniel tells me that The Black Widow looks like me. It’s the 3D glasses I’m sure.

Thursday: My Zoë and Josh are moving even farther away from the Big Top. I’m beyond sad even if it is a great and exciting adventure for them. But standing behind our promise to support these clowns in all that they do I’m sending the boys to Monterey with a big ol’ U-Haul so that they might pack up all their worldly goods and move them all down to LA. Daniel is ready to lend a hand.

Friday: It has been a long, hot day. Finally, the cooling Delta breezes are kicking in. The boys are in LA, the girls are at the mall and swim parties and I am here on the back patio with just this delicious glass of Sangria. Right here, right now, this week, life is good!

daily Fallon #46

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Ah nom, nom, nom….

nom, nom, nom…

apples…nom, nom, nom…bananas…nom, nom, nom…

peaches…nom, nom, nom…carrots…nom, nom, nom…peas…nom, nom, nom…

Thanks to this Munchkin fresh food feeder my mommy got me I can enjoy all kinds of deliciousness.

This week’s Focus 52 assignment is delicious. There is all kinds of delicious-ness linked up over there. Be sure to check it out.

daily Fallon #40

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Ah, nom, nom, nom…teething is a total bitch. Today I cried and screamed for over 90 minutes while with my Mi-ma. Yeah, I nearly drove her crazy. But these teething biscuits my mommy made me are the best…and they don’t make much of a mess either…even better, I smell like cinnamon and apples now. Here’s the recipe:

  • take one slice of wheat bread (or white bread if your a white bread kind of person) and cut off all the crusts.
  • smash the bread and flatten it
  • spread applesauce on it from edge to edge
  • roll it up tightly
  • spread more applesauce on the outside on the top of the roll
  • sprinkle with a little cinnamon
  • microwave for 60 to 90 seconds and let cool
  • let baby nom, nom, nom

Yeah. I’m happy.I’ll be happier once these things they call “teeth” break through and stop hurting so much. In the meantime, nom, nom, nom…ah, nom, nom, nom!!!

daily Fallon #38

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Apparently pureed spinach, rutabagas, apples and rice cereal is the most delicious, amazing stuff ever.

No! Really!!

Fallon just can not get enough of this stuff as she leans forward for more, smacking her lips and slurping it up off the spoon.

But her Papa was retching and gagging a little as he quickly walked out of the room after I told him what Fallon was eating with such gusto. Baby monster didn’t seem to care…more for her! Right?!

Yes, today her eyes are blue which looks really good with the green baby food smeared all over her face.

the new hunger games

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In this news this week…and pissing me off on so many different levels… is the K-E Diet for the blushing bride-to-be who desperately wants to lose 5, 10 or even 20 pounds in just 10 days…no exercise necessary. All you have to do is have a doctor insert a NG tube (naso-gastric tube) into your nose, down your throat, through your esophagus and into your stomach. The tube will be taped securely to your face and attached to a feeding pump that will slowly drip a unique 800 calories/day formula of protein, fats and water.

“It is a hunger-free, effective way of dieting,” Di Pietro said. “Within a few hours and your hunger and appetite go away completely, so patients are actually not hungry at all for the whole 10 days. That’s what is so amazing about this diet.”

Slipping into a wedding gown for a dream wedding is a moment of truth for most brides, but as many say that there is a real fear that it will not quite fit. That’s how Jessica Schnaider says she felt with a June wedding approaching and 10 pounds she says she couldn’t lose. She was desperate for a quick fix.

“I don’t have all of the time on the planet just to focus an hour and a half a day to exercise so I came to the doctor, I saw the diet, and I said, ‘You know what? Why not? Let me try it. So I decided to go ahead and give it a shot,” she said.

I watched this news report sitting next to my son, Daniel…you know, the kid who was fed by feeding tubes the first four years of his life. The kid who could not, would not take food by mouth for those years for so many different reasons…medical and otherwise. The kid who had to learn how to safely chew and swallow food protecting his airway because his left vocal cord is paralyzed. Yeah, THAT KID! He shook his head, while watching this report, and asked why would anyone do that to themselves on purpose…if they didn’t have to. “That is so dumb!”, he declared. And bad mommy that I am, I didn’t chide him for judging someone so harshly…because he is right. He is so very right. Yeah, Jessica Schnaider, my ten year old son thinks you are dumb.

I get the pressure some women put on themselves to achieve an impossible ideal…sort of…kind of. I get the desire for a quick fix that does not involve sensible dieting and exercising…god forbid a bride-to-be actually WORK AND SWEAT to be physically something she really isn’t…something that her fiance did not fall in love with. I do. Or at least I try to imagine what would drive a woman to do this for no other reason than to be skinnier. Okay, fine! I DON’T get it. Not. At. All.

My precious child was fed by an ng tube for most of the 132 days he spent in the NICU. It was only the last three weeks of his NICU stay that he was able, with great difficulty, to take infant formula by a bottle to satisfy his neonatologists who directed his care. But just two months after discharge he abruptly stopped and refused the bottle…completely. There was no other choice but to resume ng feedings…even if his pediatrician thought he was right: that in spite of his extreme premature birth, his chronic lung disease, his reflux and his paralyzed vocal cord there was no reason why an infant would not eat…would starve himself.

This was our reality.

Our life with our beautiful baby boy was all about feeding him by a tube that was placed in his nose that led down to his stomach and was taped securely to his soft cheek.

Strangers would stare, ask what was wrong with our baby and offer all kinds of unsolicited advice and solutions…because it couldn’t be possible that a baby simply would not eat, would starve himself.

Everything I ever believed, learned or did as a mother regarding nutrition and feeding my children I had to let go of with this experience with my child. I had to accept the scrutiny (and sometimes judgments) of professionals and lay-people alike. I had to be the one to re-insert his feeding tube if it was accidentally or purposely dislodged by my baby boy…sometimes daily…and I had to listen to him cry as I did it. Daniel was fed by ng tube until he was 9 months old when his pediatrician and GI specialist reluctantly agreed to our request for a gastrostomy feeding tube. They would only agree because I refused to give continuous 24 hour feedings by ng tube because of the potential for dislodging of the tube and aspiration of feeding into his lungs. It wasn’t until 4 years later that he was finally able to be tube feeding free. Feeding this child still remains a struggle and I imagine it will always be so for him. I hated the feeding tubes…I despised them…but I remain grateful for them because at one point in his life it was the only way to feed him. Having cared for, cried for, prayed for and supported Daniel on this journey I have to wonder like he did…Why? Why would anyone do this to themselves on purpose…just to be skinnier and prettier in a dress that they will wear for but one day?

ABC

Why?