Tastes that take me home -- #giveaway

I grew up, mostly, in Dayton, Ohio. It's not too far from my now common-law-hometown of Indianapolis, which is nice because that means I get back there often enough to satisfy a few hometown cravings:

• Marion's Pizza -- the deluxe version with a deluxe salad on the side. The pizza crust is thin and crispy and delicious. The salad has tiny, little cubes of mozzarella and green olives, along with all the other salad usuals. It's the olives that make it fantastic!
• Super Subby's -- I order one of three things at Subby's. Turkey on wheat with provolone and light mayo. Tuna salad on wheat with lettuce and tomato. Or Subby's chili with mushrooms and provolone. I got hooked on that cup of deliciousness when I was working into the wee hours of the morning at Adventure Golf.
• UDF Cherry Cordial Ice Cream -- This is the one item for which I will break my "no buying food from a gas station" rule. It's pink heaven with chocolate pieces in a bowl.
• Esther Price Candies -- Esther Price was my first taste of GOOD chocolate. It will always hold a special place in my heart. 

The only problem is that in order to enjoy these treats, I have to actually go to Dayton to get them.

Fortunately, there is one more hometown food that I like and can get anytime I want to. That would be Mikesell's potato chips and pretzels. I get those right in my own grocery store. My favorites are the Groovy Chips and the Baked Pretzel Rods. So when the PR peo -- WAIT! This just in! You can buy Mikesell's and Esther Price Chocolate Covered Potato Chips! Do I hear Mother's Day calling?!...but I digress...

 
As I was saying, when the PR people for Mikesell's contacted me to ask if I would like to receive some samples of Mikesell's newest snacks, it didn't take me long to say "sign me up!"

What I received was a box containing samples of three products:

• Kettle-cooked Sour Cream & Onion chips -- Quite tasty. I'm not usually a fan of the onion part of sour cream and onion chip, but the flavor of these was mild enough to be enjoyable. The chip itself was thick and nicely fried.
  
• Kettle-cooked Bold Jamaican Jerk chips -- Mike tried these and liked them (I was too chicken.) He said they were "Hot. Unexpectedly hot, but the burn died down quickly.
  
• Cinnamon Toast Puffcorn -- These were not our favorite. The cinnamon came through nicely, but we weren't fans of the texture. However, if you like the Taco Bell cinnamon crisps, these would be a good snack for you.   

And now here's the part you've been waiting for...you can win a three-month supply* of Mikesell's snacks -- the three I listed above and other Mikesell's snacks. 


* Please note: I'm not sure if these Mikesell's people have ever met a teenage boy. So let the caveat emptor say that one person's three-month supply may only last a week in someone else's house. 

To enter to win the free prize pack of snack sensations, leave a comment on this blog post (which means if you are reading this on Facebook, you need to click through and leave your comment on the actual post) answering the question below:

What kind of chip person are you? Regular? Baked? Kettle-cooked? Flavored? If you're more of a pretzel person, you can let me know that too.  

Also, if you are reading this on Facebook, check out the Mikesell's Facebook page too.  

I will draw a winner using Random.org on Saturday, May 4 at 9pm EDT. The winner will be announced here and on the 4th Frog Facebook page. The hungry winner will have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen.
 
Giveaway open to U.S. residents ages 18 and up only. 

(Please excuse the wonky formatting on this post. I've been messing with the code to fix it and I'm just calling it "good enough.")

Ya buncha bed makers, you

I asked one simple question on the 4th Frog Facebook page the other day:

How many of you make your bed every morning, or almost every morning?

Whoa! I had no idea how many people would take the time to answer. To date, 123 people have responded (that's a lot for my page). Of those 123, I would say everyone except about 5 people make their bed every day or almost every day. 

For realz? With hospital corners and everything? 

It probably won't surprise you that I am not a bed maker. There are several reasons why I don't feel compelled to tidy up my sleep space. 

1. Once I'm up, I hit the ground running and just don't have (or take) the time to make the bed.
2. I have a king size bed and making it amounts to an aerobic workout, which I try to avoid at all costs.
3. Why make it when I'm just going to get back in it in 18 hours and mess it up again?

In fact, the only time I do make my bed is when I'm cleaning the bedroom so I have a flat surface to put all the junk that's cluttering the floor. 

When I was in college, I kind of made my bed most mornings. I lived in a sorority house (Ahoy there, Delta Gammas!) and we all slept upstairs in one big dormitory filled with bunk beds. During rush week and when talking to parents we referred to it as an "open air dorm." But really, it was a cold dorm -- made that way because the windows were kept open all the time to air out the germs that could collect when 70 girls were sleeping in one room. If you didn't at least pull the covers up over the mattress and your pillow in the morning, you could be in for a very cold welcome when you got back in bed at night.

That's probably why, even today, I like climbing into a bed with cold sheets and pillowcases. I don't like it to stay cold, but I like to start out that way.

Some people in my unscientific Facebook poll said they only make their beds on the weekends. What I want to know is why? The weekends are "off-duty" time, although I do tackle several other chores over the weekend.

But all you bed makers have gotten me thinking. Maybe I'll make my bed today. Or maybe I'll just climb back in it and take a nap.

In the face of tragedy then and now

I didn't know anything about the explosions at the Boston Marathon until sometime after 4pm yesterday when Charlie was watching ESPN. I knew it had to be big if ESPN was reporting a news story that was suddenly only tangentially related to sports. I sat on the couch, watching the coverage, seeing for the 20th time the old man runner in the red shirt stumble and fall to the ground as the explosion rocked the crowd just a few yards from him. I watched the coverage for maybe 30 or 40 minutes before it dawned on me that Robbie and Charlie were watching along with Mike and me.

Robbie asked what happened. We told him there was an explosion. Charlie said it was a bomb and I immediately wanted to protect them both from that thought. Explosion, while bad enough, didn't seem to carry with it the essence of evil that the word "bomb" did. We gathered, held hands and said a "Hail Mary" for those injured and killed. I texted Annie and asked her to say a prayer too. Then I turned off the television, told the kids to do their homework, and went about making dinner.

Nearly 12 years ago, in 2001, we watched on the morning news as the Twin Towers and thousands of lives were sacrificed in New York City. Annie was at preschool. Charlie was only 2 and played with toys as Mike and I sat and watched the events unfold. After about an hour or so, I got up and drove to pick Annie up from preschool. I felt an urgency that we should all be together. We watched hours of coverage, switching to Barney and Madeline videos when it seemed that little eyes and ears were getting too many details, or when Mike and I just had absorbed more than we could handle.

Yesterday as I turned off the TV, I wondered what was best to do. Turn off the television and protect my kids from the day's terrible events? Or leave it on and help them be informed about their world? I didn't worry about how Annie would handle it. But Charlie can be pretty sensitive and I wasn't sure that Robbie would be able to understand what was happening in perspective to his own bubbled life. It turns out we did a little of both. After dinner we watched a little bit of the coverage. And then we turned on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. There was something therapeutic about watching a show where I knew the good guys were going to win in the end.

We had talked some at dinner about what had happened. And then when I was tucking Robbie into bed, we prayed again for everyone in Boston who was hurt.

"Why would someone just go put a bomb in a place where there were people?," Robbie asked after the prayer was over.

"I think he must have a lot of hate in his heart," I told him.

"I know how that hate might have gotten in his heart," Robbie said. "Maybe he is in school and kids are mean to him and that's why he has hate." Whoa. Deep breath here and a slight prayer that this was an observation, not an empathetic sentiment.

"Maybe," I said. "You know the best way to help people get rid of hateful hearts?," I asked him. "You give them lots of love, even when it feels like you don't want to. We show people God's love and hopefully one day, they open their hearts to that love and have lots of love to share." That seemed to be enough for him. He fell asleep with no more questions.

I'm sure that the questions won't end there, though I'm not sure I will have sufficient answers. It was so much easier 12 years ago to protect my kids by simply turning on Barney. I didn't have to think about how they would be part of that big, ugly, complicated world someday. But now -- as they are all in double digits -- I remind myself that they ARE part of that world. And I'm left wondering how best to help them live and love in it.

Yes Mom, I was listening.

Tonight is the first rehearsal for the event that will give me my 4-1/2 minutes of fame, "Listen to Your Mother." To prove that I can walk the talk, and that I did indeed listen to my mother, here are 10 things I learned from my own mom:

1. If there is a business that never seems to have any customers, yet has been in business for a really long time, it's probably a front for drugs.


2. When I don't want to go to church, I just have to ask myself "Do you think Jesus wanted to climb up on that cross and die for you?"


3. Almost anything can be fixed with a paper clip and a rubber band.


4. When beginning a test, say a quick prayer to St. John Chrysostom. Apparently he is the patron saint of smart people.


5. I'm not going to be happy until somebody ends up crying.


6. When I can make a free throw while holding a bag of groceries in one hand, I will belong to the "cool mom" group.


7. Real moms buy sandwich bags that fold over, not zip; orange juice concentrate; and Nestle Quik.


8. If you see some cute home decor at the store, don't bother buying it because you can just make it yourself. You probably won't get around to making it, but you could.


9. Should the need arise, Serenity brand protection is the best for a leaky bladder.


10. If your kid says his arm is broken, it probably is. However, you can wait a day or two to have it checked out just to be sure.

Confession: I must not have listened that closely because I could only come up with 8 things and I had to call my sister to help me recall the last two.


Listen to Your Mother Indianapolis is Thursday, May 2.
Get your tickets today! (Really -- prices go up on April 15.)

You can read what some of my fellow cast members have learned from their mothers too:


Hillary at Midwest Berliners 
Robyn at Hollow Tree Ventures

My gastronomical paradox

I'm not a great cook. (If you recall my attempt at potato soup, this statement will not surprise you.) Often I can't think of what to cook. If I do have any idea of something to cook, it's not unusual for me to be without the time or ingredients to get the dish made successfully. And if I have an idea, the time and all the food necessary, then I put dinner on the table to hear my boys groan and declare, "I'm not eating that."

So of course, what is my favorite thing to watch on TV? The Food Network. It started years ago when I got hooked on Ready, Set, Cook. Who remembers that show? That's old school Food Network. Then it was Emeril and Mario Batali. Now my list of Food Network faves includes:

Worst Cooks in America
Chef Wanted with Anne Burrell
Chopped
Food Network Challenge
Diners, Drive-ins & Dives
Next Food Network Star
Iron Chef America
Unwrapped

In a pinch, I'll watch Cupcake Wars, though it's not one that I would DVR.

I could watch food TV all day. Chopped is probably my all-time favorite. At this point, I can start to predict what flavor combinations the chefs will go for and which dishes the judges will like.

With the exception of Diners, Drive-ins & Dives and Unwrapped, all the Food Network shows I like to watch are competition shows. So maybe I like the competition more than I like the cooking? And although she hosts two of my favorite shows, I don't care for Anne Burrell. The wacky hair, the clunky shoes with the short skirts. The attitude. Not my taste (pun intended).

I LOVE Alex Guarnaschelli, especially as a judge on Chopped. I think she might have a straight-up cooking show of her own, but I don't watch it. 

And I can't watch Restaurant Impossible. Chef Robert Irvine usually finds too much gross stuff going on in the kitchens of those restaurants. It makes me not want to eat out. Not eating out means more cooking and I've already established that as something I'm not too keen on.

Are you a food TV foodie? What do you like to watch? Does that translate into good cooking?

So sad there is a need for this again.

Today's post is in memory of a young person, gone too soon. I didn't know him, but he was a schoolmate of Annie's. I wrote the words below following the tragedy of another young person leaving life behind in a way that no one seemed to be able to explain. She was 16. The young boy who died last weekend was just 14. I cannot even imagine what it must feel like for his family.

I'm sure the blog analytics experts would say here is the place where I should insert links to the previous posts. Maybe, but you might not click those links and what I have to say -- again -- is something I think is important. Important for my kids, for yours. So here they are. Please take the the time to read them. Then go hug your kids or your friends' kids or the kids you see at church and tell them you are there.

Dear Annie, Charlie & Robbie -- 

Have someone.

Have someone, an adult, in your life that you can talk to. Of course you can talk to me or Dad. But I was a teenager once. I know that sometimes your parents are the last people you want to talk to. And that's ok. We don't have to know everything. We might want to, but we don't have to.

But have someone who you trust to tell those things to. Have someone who you can confide in; who will keep your confidence and who will also know how to take care of your heart; who will know when to just listen, when to step in and do something more.

And to your friends who might be reading this, if you need someone to be that person in your life, I am here.

I feel like I should go on here to say how much you are loved, how much joy and pride you bring to my life. Those things are true and I hope you already know that.

But I think I just really want to say have someone, because no one could replace you in my life.

Love,
Mom

After I wrote that, my brain and my heart kept churning, until I realized there was more I wanted to say. And that was this:

Be someone.

Be someone who is willing to walk across the cafeteria or the playground to talk to the person who is always standing alone, no matter what others might say.

Be someone who steps outside of your circle to partner up with someone you don't know very well for the science project or the sit-up challenge in gym class.

Be someone who smiles and holds the door open and says "I like your hair" or "You are a good artist" or "How was your weekend?"

Be someone who really listens -- puts down the cell phone, the video game remote, the laptop and listens with your ears, your eyes and your heart.

Be someone who hears what others are saying...and what they are not.

Be someone who refuses to laugh at another person's expense.

Be someone who isn't defined by a group or a label like "hipster," "jock," or "nerd." Instead be someone who has friends in all those groups and who can bring people together.

Be someone who is honest, who doesn't sugarcoat your own life. Be real so other people can see that we're all in this human-ness together, that we all struggle.

Be someone who lets others know that they matter.

Be someone who isn't afraid to break a friend's confidence and go to an adult if you think they are in danger.

I know it sounds like a tall order. But I know you can do it.

I believe in you.

Love,
Mom

You want to be WHAT when you grow up?

Since I was a little girl, I've wanted to be a writer. I remember a now really embarrassing episode when I was in the bathtub. I called my mom in, crying because I was so happy to tell her I knew what I wanted to do when I grew up -- I wanted to be a writer. Then to show her how good of a writer I was going to be, I proceeded to sing a song I'd written..."Blowin' in the Wind." She tried to tell me that someone else had already written that and suggested maybe I'd heard it somewhere. But I was insistent and she was loving enough to not squash my dreams like a little plagiarized bug. I'm not sure how she kept a straight face.

Fast forward 30 years and I am a writer. Not of songs or great works of literature. But I make my living via the written word and I'm thankful for that. I'm also a parent of three kids who have their own dreams. In the not too distant past, one wanted to be an actress, one a NBA star and one a Target worker. "Great," I thought, "They will all be living with me for the rest of my life."

But I didn't discourage them. I talk to them about the realities of those choices, what it would take to get there. Like my mom, I don't ask them about plan B.

As Annie has gotten older, she's started to understand the challenges and realities associated with acting as a life choice. As the college pitches have begun to fill our mailbox, she's thinking about majoring in psychology and minoring in theatre. We've talked about the need to go to graduate school to be a counselor. Yet, she still has a dream to be on Saturday Night Live.

"Go for it," I've told her. And why not? The world is filled with miserable people who are punching a clock, selling things they don't believe in. It doesn't have to be all or nothing. She can do both -- create a career that pays the bills and pursue her dream in the off hours. She just has to be willing to be put in the work to do it.

Then there is my NBA star. Oy. That one is a bit further of a reach. I'm encouraging him to concentrate on making a high school basketball team first. But that NBA dream drives him outside to practice his head fake and jump shot. Mike's been talking to him about the idea of writing about sports if playing them for a living doesn't pan out. Yes, there are a zillion sports writers out there. But if that's his passion, then who are we to tell him to forget about it? It's our job as parents to recognize his passions and help him set a course for creating a life built around them. Besides, he's 13.

As for my little Target worker, if that makes him happy -- and he shares his discount with me -- that's fine by me.