It has come to my attention that some of you out there (waves to the peanut gallery) are disappointed in the shortness of some of my recent entries. Here is a compilation of thoughts for you to enjoy with your Wheaties.

~ Do they even make Wheaties anymore? *dons best old fogey voice* Do the younguns know what I am talking when I say that?

~ I love the fact that Isabella actually has the word eek as part of her everyday vocabulary. It makes me smile every time she says it.

~ NPR's Science Friday had a feature last week on the Six Degrees of Separation Theory. Apparently, some scientists have shown it to be false. Listening to the segement and learning about the actual experiment that led to the theory becoming part of our popular culture, I agree that the actual experiment did not prove much. However, looking at my own set of Six Degrees of Separation, I do not know that I doubt the theory that much. I am a farm girl from Wisconsin. Even without my internet connections, I can make some amazing jumps in just a couple of degrees. It is four degrees from me to Fidel Castro (I know -> J who met -> Che Guevara who was a revolutionary with -> Castro). Three steps from me to Frank Lloyd Wright (I know -> D who met -> Wright. D even got a personal tour of Taliesin from Wright). Four steps from me to Josef Stalin (I -> met Brandoch Peters years ago -> he was married to Svetlana Alliluyeva for a short time she was -> Stalin's daughter). That is only going three or four degrees. Luis and I have consistently been shocked at how many of people we know, even those who are hundreds of miles away, have overlapping circles of acquaintance. I do not care if the theory is perfectly true. Even if it takes 8 or 10 or 12 degrees to connect everyone in the entire world, it is still a fun parlour game. How many degrees is it from you to someone well known? (/start subliminal message/ Comments people, leave comments! I know you are reading, leave a comment! /end subliminal message/)

Part of the NPR segment questioned why people grab on to this theory and love it so much. I think that we love the connection it creates between us and the rest of the world. People love to know how they fit together with others. I think that is why some people enjoy geneology. In some cultures, upon meeting new people, it was or is important to discuss family trees and social acquaintances until a connection is made. Humans like to know how we fit together.

~ Do you listen to NPR? Do you support it? The segments and shows on NPR are both informative and entertaining, and not just for upper class intellectual geeks. Take a listen someday! Support it if you do listen regularly!

~ Cinnamon Raisin Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread is a gift from the gods. I think it is my current favorite bread.

~ iGoogle is fabulous. I love it to bits. One simple webpage for my homepage will show me the news I want, the woot of the day, the current weather, the current moon phase, gives me quick access to my calendar, lets me track my water consumption, gives me a new Spanish word and interesting quotes every day, and provides me with easy links to last week's Whad'Ya Know and Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. I *heart* iGoogle. Now if only my google calendar could be downloaded onto my cellphone, I could be a happy camper, at least for the time being.

Could I please have just one easy day with her for a change? I am not greedy; I will settle for just one.

Pretty please with whipped cream, chocolate syrup and a cherry one top?

Luis brought me some Hershey's chocolate bars last night. While I appreciated the effort, what is the point of a plain Hershy's bar if I cannot slather it in peanut butter? Since peanut butter is no longer an option in our house, what was I to do?

It was a brilliant moment, MacGyver in the kitchen. One gas stove. One bamboo kabob stick. A couple of mini-marshmallows. Two graham crackers. One chocolate bar. One husband shaking his head at the lunacy of it all.

Two s'mores later, my sweet tooth was satisfied and I was a happy woman.

The bitter cold days of winter are not my favorites, but today it did warm up enough to snow. I was watching the snow fall in the dark tonight. The flakes are huge and fluffy, falling by the glow of the streetlights.

I went outside for a few minutes to listen to the snow falling. When the world is quiet on a snowing evening, there is nothing like listening to the snow fall. It is a such a thick quiet, so different from other types of quiet. The muffled, soft noise of snow falling is one of my favorite things about winter evenings.

January brings the snow, makes our feet and fingers glow.
Sara Coleridge

I am typing this while lying down, looking at the soft little bundle cuddled up next to me. His eyelashes lay across his chubby cheeks, his lips are slightly pursed in his sleep. His breath flutters against me. He is beautiful beyond belief.

It amazes me how much love can fill up my heart when I look at my children sometimes. I always love them, of course, but there are times when I look at them and something catches me off guard. Love pours out like a tangible substance.

I am blessed beyond measure.

My princess Isabella started ballet today. She absolutely adored it.

It must be January.

Every new year, I get the bug to change things in our home. The little things that have bothered me since we moved in or huge things, it doesn't really matter. I get a need for change. One year, we finally painted over the horrid sponge painting the previous owners had left us. Last year was stellar. I was pregnant and nesting in addition to having my normal January urges. We ripped out the carpeting and refinished the wood floors, tiled the backsplash in the kitchen, put new faucets in the downstairs bathroom and repainted the upstairs.

Last night, I was sitting at the kitchen table just before putting the children to bed when the January bug hit. It hit hard. I suddenly knew just how I could redo my kitchen to expand my counter and cupboard space with minimal time and cost. The closet redo that Luis did for me in the fall was not enough. I still wanted more counter space.

After a quick consult with Luis, in which he naturally agreed with me and even expanded upon the idea (January hits him too), I had a plan. Unfortunately, Luis was not supportive of starting a kitchen redo at 9:30 at night after I had the baby to sleep. I was awake for hours last night, arranging and rearranging things in my mind. I even got up at 2 am to go downstairs and measure something out.

There was a small snag with counter top widths, but that will be okay. One new counter top won't be too much. Okay, one new counter top and and two hanging cabinets. Plus a half wall that Luis wants to construct. Nothing at all, really. Right?

We rearranged the cabinets after dinner tonight, and I changed the orientation of the kitchen table. I will have to get a new counter top as soon as possible, but the hanging cabinets can wait a little if necessary. We ended up dividing up the room, but I like the functionality, and I am going to finally have more functional counter space and more room in my cabinets. Hurray!

Oh what fun January brings around here. Home Depot and Menards love us when the New Year comes.

How many meals can a family of six get out of one and a half pounds of ground beef?

No, that is not a trick question. One? Two? Three? Four? What do you think?

I usually get two or three meals from about one and a half pounds of beef or chicken. I was thinking about this recently, and I feel it is an important thing to pay attention to in meal planning. Over the years, my cooking has changed dramatically from meat-focused meals to meals where the meat is more of a flavor or part of a dish. I am an unabashed omnivore. I like meat, and I have no problem with the ethical issues of eating animals. I do like to be sure that the vast majority of our meat comes from local sources and is raised in conditions that I feel are ethical and sustainable, but other than that, I have no problems at all with eating meat.

However, over the years, my cooking has changed. We may occasionally have steak or meatloaf for dinner, but it is becoming rare. I am much more likely to take one pound of steak and turn it into two meals - veggie heavy stir fry, fajitas with veggies and rice, kabobs, fried rice, soups. All stretch the meat while providing a filling meal. That one and half pound package of ground beef is likely to be turned into spaghetti with meat sauce and a side of bread, sweet and sour meatballs with lots of peppers, pineapple and rice, and chili with cornbread. Perhaps it will become beef and bean enchiladas with mexican rice, pasta pie with garlic bread, and two cheeseburger pizzas. Three hearty, satisfying meals for a family of six, one package of ground beef. A single 3 or 4 pound roasting chicken will easily become four meals for us - chicken quesadillas, stir fry, fried rice, fettuccine alfredo with chicken and broccoli and more.

This is important to think about because of the state of the meat industry in the US today. Researching the conditions in which factory farmed meat is raised and processed is enough to turn anyone's stomach. When we eat meals with less meat, we are able to spend the extra money on locally raised, natural meat processed in small, local processing plants. I like to know that I am not supporting the factory farming industry with the vast majority of meat that we purchase. We are not perfect; I still buy deli meat on occasion or kielbasa, but I can feel good knowing that probably 95%+ of the meat that we eat is treated humanely.

Like so many other good things, change can start in the kitchen. There is power in the stove and wooden spoon. Tie on your apron, pull out a cookbook and try a new recipe, something where the meat is part of the dish, not the entire focus. Do you have a good recipe to share? Send me a link, please! I am always looking for new ones, especially Mediterranean or Asian ones.

The Yahtzee saga continues. Tonight, Luis pulled the game out again after the children were all tucked away snug in their beds. I destroyed him in the first game. Guess what amazing feat I did. Go ahead, guess.

Three Yahtzees in a single game.

Never before have I done that. We are starting to think the game is possessed. I scored a whopping 530 points in that game. I did not know it was possible to score that high.

Of course, the next game, Luis and I tied at a mere 149 points each. We took it as a cosmic sign to put the game away. Until tomorrow. Luis is completely infatuated with the game, and I know he'll pull it out again tomorrow.

Sister of mine, great gift! Thank you so much!

It amazes me that I can still learn new things about Luis after dating for 5 years and being married for 12. Tonight, I learned that he had never in his life played Yahtzee. Can you imagine living until your mid 30's and never once playing Yahtzee? That simply would not be possible in my family. My siblings and I played countless games throughout our childhood and teen years. I think we were still playing it in our young adult years.

Thanks to my dear sister gifting our family with Yahtzee for the holidays, Luis played for the first time tonight. We played the first game with the children and had a fabulous time. The girls were so into it. Isabella and I won. Luis was an instant Yahtzee fan, ready to start a second game with the kids even though we finished the first game at bedtime. After the kids were in bed, we played some more. I told him that I was a Yahtzee champ and would beat him easily. I was wrong. We played four games, and I did not win a one. Luis also achieved something that I have never seen in all of my years of Yahtzee playing.

He rolled three Yahtzees in a single game.

Three. I could not believe it. I called my sister after he rolled the second one, and then he went and rolled another. Unbelievable.

I am calling it beginner's luck. I will challenge him again tomorrow night and then we will see who the real Yahtzee champ is.