There Are Days

There are days when all you want to do is sit at the kitchen table and enjoy breakfast with your kid, but then she screws around and ends up not having time to eat.

There are days when you look forward to getting home so you can cuddle up on the couch with that little human, but the day goes from long to longer when traffic is a nightmare.

There are days when you plan to spend the evening side-by-side with your kid as you decorate a Christmas tree and make memories, but then realize that you HAVE to comb the dog. It really can't wait.

There are days when you hurry through that furry task so that you can hang out with that kid after all, but then that kid decides she would rather work on homework anyway.

There are days when you try to help your kid with the homework so she can finish fast, but then she has a total and complete meltdown because she doesn't know how to spell the word "person."

There are days when you try to calm down the melty kid, but she lashes out and says really stupid things.

There are days when you really want to overlook those stupid things, but you know you can't. It doesn't matter the circumstances, you have to remind the kid that there is no excuse for speaking rudely.

There are days when speaking rudely lands your kid in bed early, even though all you wanted to do all day long was to hang out with that kid.

There are days when you don't get to hang out with your kid as much as you wanted, but you do get to read a note that she wrote that reminds you why the struggles are all worth it.

Christmas Crazy Turns Blue Orange

It's like tip-toeing across a tightrope while carrying a giant stack of antique plates, this blogging thing. Some days finding the balance is easy, other days it's not at all.

And some days it's amazing.

Waaaaay back in the spring, I made a decision to lean a little to one side and work with a company on a review and giveaway even though on the surface it didn't seem like a perfect fit. There was a lot of careful thought that went into it because it's important to me that it not become all giveaways all the time around here.

That particular giveaway turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Not only did I learn about a fantastic game that I wouldn't have discovered otherwise, I was able to start to build a relationship. Time went by and another opportunity for a giveaway came up, and once again I was impressed by the product and by the company.

That company is Blue Orange and they make a game called Spot It! No joke, that is the most played game in our house. Alexis loves it, I love it, it's all around a win. In fact, I took it with me to Tennessee this summer and we had six cousins of all different ages gathered around a table playing and laughing and having a fantastic time. It happens to be a game where age doesn't provide an advantage, so the younger kids were evenly matched against the older kids and yet the older kids weren't bored.

How often does THAT happen?

Anyway, out of those reviews a relationship was born. That relationship led to something even more fantastic -- Blue Orange sent a giant box of games and toys to me a few months ago specifically for a little thing I like to call Christmas Crazy.

So I accepted a review and giveaway offer. That led to kids in need getting gifts this coming Christmas.

Blogging definitely doesn't suck.

It's time to kick off this year's Christmas Crazy parade. The first float is already filled with games from Blue Orange and now I need your help to make the parade as amazing and as fantastic as it has been in prior years.

If you need a reminder of what this is all about, might I suggest this post? Or how about this one?

Anyway, this year we are working to make Christmas fantastic for kids who receive services from Center for Victims. Center for Victims is a Pittsburgh-based agency that was the result of a merger between Womansplace, Inc. (one of the Christmas Crazy charities from last year) and the Center for Victims of Violent Crimes. They combined forces this past summer so that they could more efficiently provide services to people who have been the victim of a violent crime. They provide advocacy, crisis intervention, counseling, shelter, and all sorts of other services to the people who need them.

And they serve kids.

We're going to make sure those kids get a little something for Christmas this year, no matter what their situation is when December 25th rolls around.

So, here's the deal. I need your donations. Those donations are 100% used to buy toys which will be delivered to the Center for Victims in time for Christmas this year. If we can come up with $5000 worth of toys, we're going to help another agency. First we have to hit that goal, though.

Click the image to donate now.

Click the Crazy button to help.



But wait! There are other ways you can help!

If you prefer, you can donate directly to Center for Victims. They can use whatever help they can get.

If things are a little tight this year, there are some non-donation type things you can do.

• Shop using this Amazon link and I will donate all affiliate profits to Christmas Crazy. I've actually done that every year so far -- if you've clicked through one of my Amazon links and shopped in November in past years (it doesn't matter what you buy, just that you click through an affiliate link), you made a donation to Christmas Crazy. Last year $212 went into the fund thanks to my Amazon affiliate account. (Might I suggest you buy Spot It! for one of the kids in your life?)
• Encourage your Twitter followers to help.
• Ask your Facebook friends to throw in a buck or two.
• Start a Christmas Crazy drive at your workplace, school, church, or whatever. If you'd like to help out a domestic violence agency that is closer to your hometown, just say the word. I will happily help you find an agency that could use a little Christmas cheer.

Let's do this. Bring on the Christmas Crazy!

Oven Roasted Garlic Potatoes

Quiz time!

It's 70 degrees and sunny in mid-November in Pittsburgh. Do you:

A) Slave in the kitchen for an hour making a fantastic dinner.

B) Declare it a pizza night for the *mumble**mumble**3rd**mumble**mumble* ... not first night that week.

C) Throw something quick into the oven and go back outside because HELLO. 70 DEGREES. AND SUNNY.

If you picked C, you win. Everything. The entire world. Because THAT is how dinner is done when it's 70 degrees and sunny.

This is technically the recipe for Garlic Roasted Potatoes. However, I'm a big fan of throwing extra stuff in with the potatoes, in no small part because I have a kid who loves vegetables. Thou shalt always appease the short vegetable lover. So, when I make Garlic Roasted Potatoes, they usually end up looking like this.

Either way, they're super good and SUPER easy. We eat them as a side with Chik'n product, which means I spend all of maybe five minutes in the kitchen.

The biggest trick to the speed demon dinner is to buy little tiny "B" potatoes. They often come in a bag found in the dark recesses of potatoland at the grocery store. Sometimes they cost a little bit more per pound than their larger counterparts, but I consider those extra pennies time. There's no cutting necessary with the tiny potatoes so I can get out of the kitchen faster.

Faster is good.

And so are these potatoes.

Garlic Roasted Potatoes

2 pounds mini potatoes, cleaned
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
3 cloves minced garlic (approximately 1 tablespoon)

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2. Place all of the ingredients in a large oven-safe baking pan. Toss carefully to coat everything with the oil.

3. Cook for 30-45 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft and lightly roasted. Flip twice during the cooking time with a spatula to make sure they cook evenly.

If you want to add other vegetables to the mix, might I suggest celery (one stick, diced), onions (one small yellow onion, chopped), baby carrots (one handful), and some cherry tomatoes (one handful)? Pretty much anything works, but that's our favorite mix.