My Children Are Going To Starve On Their Own

Every now and then, I enlist my two teenagers to make a simple meal, or a side dish. Granted, my son has learning disabilities and my daughter is bipolar, but one would think that between the two of them they could figure out how to read a box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese and successfully make it without incident. How wrong could I be?

The directions are simple. Bring 4 cups of water to a boil. Add macaroni, cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Strain the noodles. Add 1/2 a stick of margarine, letting it melt with the hot noodles. Add 1/4 cup of milk. Add the powdered cheese packet and stir until the powder is completely mixed in.

Several months ago I enlisted my daughter to make it and she put the water in the pot, then added all the ingredients except the cheese packet. I happened to walk past the stove and see what was in the pot and catch her before she dumped in the cheese packet. I managed to strain the noodles out, start a new pot of water to boil and saved our side dish, but the margarine and milk were wasted.

Thursday night the two of them were trying to fix the mac & cheese. My son kept bringing the box to me and asking what to do next. (It's on the box, isn't it?) He measured out the water, made me double check it was the right amount. Put the pot of water on the stove and then I heard him dump in the macaroni. Umm...so much for reading the directions. I told him to turn the stove off, strain the noodles, hold them in the strainer and start with a fresh pot of water and wait until it boils. Just for good measure I gently reminded him that the rest of the ingredients were for after the noodles were cooked and strained. It turned out just fine and he was quite proud of himself.

It makes me wonder though, when they are on their own what the heck are they going to eat if they can't follow the directions for Kraft Macaroni & Cheese? Ramen noodles get boring after awhile. I'm just sayin'...

Lola's Diner
©2008-2009

Lady Java's Lounge Blog Makeover Giveaway

Lady Java over at Lady Java's Lounge is having a Blog Makeover Giveaway to help celebrate her 40th Birthday, which was March 9th and her 9th Anniversary which is March 25th. (So if we want to be technical, Lady Java has been married 8 years, and roughly 11 and a half months.)

I have been wanting to have a Blog Makeover for quite some time now. I've been doing some research at the public library on how to do it myself, but unfortunately I have not been able to find the right books to develop the mad skills to do a Blog Makeover myself. Since I am on a very limited income due to disability and my partner lost her job, something as self indulgent as a Blog Makeover (though totally and completely necessary for a blogger) it is just not in the budget. My teenage son, (read bottomless pit, thinks 4 sandwiches is an after school snack, eating machine teenage son) just wouldn't appreciate my spending part of the food budget on my blog. I want to clean up my sidebar by adding some tabs near the header for stuff like awards, recipes, etc., widen my blog post column, and really pimp out my blog in a totally Retro Diner style. I've been blogging for 4 months now and have managed to meet some awesome blogger friends. I have steadily increased my traffic beyond what I ever would have thought I could have accomplished in such a short time. I feel it is time to tjuz my blog a bit. Winning the Blog Makeover would freshen up my blog and my spirit.

If you want to enter Lady Java's Blog Makeover Giveaway here are her very simple rules:

1. Tell Lady Java her birthdate.
2. Tell Lady Java how many years she has been married.
3. Put that information in a blog entry also telling Lady Java why you think you want and deserve this blog makeover.
4. Link to the entry in your blog entry and leave Lady Java the url of that post in her Mr. Linky on her website.

So, Happy Belated Birthday Lady Java and everyone wish me luck! And best of luck to everyone who enters!

Lola's Diner
©2008-2009

This And That

My kitty Sophie was on kitty krack yesterday. She has a knack for finding my daughter’s pony tail bands, which is funny, because my daughter never wears them and couldn’t even tell you where they are. Anyway, Sophie finds them in her room, then brings them downstairs to the living room and does a kind of kitty Cirque du Soleil. Yesterday she entertained me through the entire Oprah show. After the kids came home from school Sophie decided to come out of her nap space behind the end table. Not too unusual, however, instead of going her normal route behind the leather sofa, she decided to jump over the table, nearly knocking the lamp over, didn’t quite make it and slid back down behind the end table. Too bad I didn’t have the video camera handy, it was a hoot.

So what do you think of Drew Peterson’s stepbrother in the news today? Peterson's Stepbrother finally Tells His Story. Anastasia and I were talking last night when they kind of teased the Sun Times headline on the news. We came up with a new theory. What if Drew had his stepbrother, Thomas Morphey kill Stacy and they came up with this blue barrel story as a cover and that allowed Morphey to go to the FBI and get immunity? Morphey was given immunity shortly after Stacy’s disappearance. In any case, it’s very sad to take advantage of someone with the problems that Morphey had. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Anyone have any thoughts on when charges will be filed? I’m guessing it’s going to be near the 2 year anniversary of Stacy’s disappearance.

Yesterday drummer boy (aka Metalica-head) was at it at 9am. Yup, 9am. Anastasia was furious because she went to bed rather late. We had all the windows and doors closed and we could still hear the drums as though they were be played in our living room. So far the dog has not been off leash. So far...

Can I say the rain here needs to stop and take a vacation somewhere else? I swear I am going to have a nervous breakdown if the rain doesn’t stop. Our sump pump is groaning. I don’t know how much longer it can take all this water. I awoke in the middle of the night to hear the rain coming down in torrents. I couldn’t get back to sleep because all I kept thinking about is all the laundry in the basement and our new freezer down there. No more rain, please.

When did Good Morning America get so loosey goosey? They’re all goofy and almost too familiar with each other. I find it annoying.

Lola's Diner
©2008-2009

Chicken Curry With Cauliflower And Carrots

We rarely eat out anymore due to our finances. Our family enjoys a wide variety of cuisines. One of our favorites is Indian. This recipe uses very little chicken, in fact if you wanted, you could omit the chicken and still have a great dish. It serves 6-8 quite well, unless you have a teenage son. (He ate 2 heaping plates!) We still had plenty of leftovers for lunch.

Chicken Curry With Cauliflower And Carrots

Lola's Diner
©2008-2009

Kentucky Anti-Gay Adoption Vote & Rally Tuesday

I received an email today from Family Equality Council about Senate Bill 68 in Kentucky.

"Kentucky's anti-gay adoption ban, Senate Bill 68, got pushed through committee late last week without so much as a single witness brought in to testify against it. The Kentucky bill will likely be voted on in the full Senate tomorrow.
Live in Kentucky?
Call the Legislative Message Line at 1-800-372-7181 right now. Leave messages for your Senator (find yours here) and Senate Leadership (find them here) saying you oppose SB 68.

Contribute to the Fairness Campaign and Kentucky Fairness Alliance, the lead state organizations opposing SB 68. These two organizations are taking aggressive action to stop the bill, including a rally at the Capitol tomorrow.
Don't live in Kentucky?
First, contact everyone you know in Kentucky. Call and tell them to dial the Legislative Message Line at 1-800-372-7181 following the instructions above.

Second, tell everyone else you know. You may not have a strong network in Kentucky, but your neighbor might. Tell them about the 7,027 children in foster care whose chances of finding a loving home will be reduced. Tell them about the 630 foster children who may be removed from their current placements because of SB 68. Tell them about the $5.3 million additional foster and adoption costs Kentucky will face should this bill pass.

Third, contribute to the Fairness Campaign and Kentucky Fairness Alliance. The struggle against anti-gay adoption bans does not begin and end in individual states."

There are just too many children in the foster care system that will miss the opportunity to have a loving family if legislation like this continues to pass. If you live in Kentucky or know someone who does, please get involved to stop SB 68.

Lola's Diner
©2008-2009

A Caregiver's Caregiver

It's been difficult to figure out how to follow Saturday's post Today's Post Is Dedicated To My Mother, but I've had this idea for a post rattling around in my head since Anastasia started her part time job and since reading these really horrible headlines:

Former Itasca Nursing Home Worker Arrested.

Death of Man Found Duct-taped To Chair Ruled Homicide.

Anastasia has found a part-time job as a caregiver. One of the people she cares for is a 91 year old woman who is in a nursing home. The woman has dementia and is a frail little woman, but feisty. Her family, from what Anastasia has learned so far consist of 2 daughters. The daughters take turns, daily it seems, to be with their Mother at lunchtime and now Anastasia is with her at dinnertime and bedtime. Part of Anastasia’s job is to give some respite to these women who were also juggling the dinnertime and bedtime visits. Anastasia gives full reports to the sister whom she was hired by. After the first weekend on the job this woman just cried tears of joy at having found someone caring who could give her some breathing space. Taking care of a parent while trying to keep up with your own responsibilities is a challenge.

The nursing home appears to be a higher end facility and for all intents and purposes seems to be a nice facility. One would ask why would these daughters feel the need to be there at lunchtime, dinnertime and bedtime? These daughters want to insure that their Mother eats and has a pleasant bedtime experience. It is fairly common for the elderly, especially at such an advanced age, to not eat enough to maintain their health. This is especially true for those who are unable to feed themselves. They also want someone there to insure her safety at bedtime.

It’s really a sad commentary about our society when we need a caregiver to oversee the caregivers we hire for our elderly. This is just about what it amounts to. The nursing home is supposed to insure safety, insure the elderly are well nourished and insure that they have activities that they enjoy.

Anastasia helps this woman eat her evening meal because she no longer has the manual dexterity to handle feeding herself. She talks with her, reassures her when she has confused thoughts or has an episode where she reenacts past conversations. Anastasia also does activities with her and reads to her. Sometimes the woman remembers her, sometimes not. Sometimes the woman is so happy to see her she just grabs Anastasia's hand and kisses it over and over, almost as if to say I haven't had a visitor in ages and I really love to have you visit. Of course in reality her daughters are there every single day.

Anastasia has seen what bedtime is like for this elderly dementia patient and it can be quite disturbing. The staff members change her diaper, remove her clothing and put on her pajamas while only explaining what they are doing once. The first night a staff member remarked, “this is when she gets out of control”. That’s the time that this frail little woman fights back by hitting, kicking, punching and screaming. Anastasia was horrified. She went to school for psychology and she could not understand why the staff members were not calmly and repeatedly stating what they were doing. Something like “ok Jane, we’re going to get ready for bed now, we’re going to get ready and take off your blouse, now we're going to take off your pants, etc. Jane we’re going to get ready for bed now, we’re just going to get into our pajamas, etc.” Imagine how much more calm the bedtime ritual would be to calmly and peacefully explain what you were doing, repeatedly, while you did it? Anastasia said, for all this poor dementia patient knew she was going to be raped. Think about it, they are taking off her clothing, removing her diaper. If you didn't have all your faculties, what would you think? How much more effort could it take for the staff at this nursing home to just speak in a kind voice and explain over and over as they got their patients ready for bed? How much more pleasant could that make it for both the staff member and the patient?

Lola's Diner
©2008-2009

Thank You Everyone!

Thank you to everyone who commented on my Saturday post Today's Post Is Dedicated To My Mother.

To all of you who have lost a parent, you have my deepest sympathy. To those of you who are fortunate enough that your parents are still living, hug them and love them and enjoy your time together. To those of you who are caregivers to your ailing parents I admire you so much. It can be a very difficult, but rewarding time.

Lola's Diner
©2008-2009