I'm in love with a Chicago-style pizza!

It was fifteen years ago that I moved away from the western suburbs of Chicago to my present home. There were so many things that I missed, but one of the more shallow, selfish things that I found hard to live without was a good Chicago-style pizza. For any of you who may not be familiar with this tasty treat, it is a large, deep-dish, double crust pizza usually overwhelmingly stuffed with cheese, meat, sauce and any other filling that strikes your fancy.

I searched our area, determined that there must be a pizza comparable to those I found in Chicago. Alas, this is the pizza desert of the world. The pizza around here consists of the thinnest crust imaginable topped with a runny sauce, a paltry amount of cheese and then cut into SQUARES! Yes, you read it right . . . squares. That's almost sacrilege for pizza connoisseurs who know a good pizza is always cut in pie-shaped triangles.

Short of shipping the good stuff in from Chicago packed in dry ice, I had resorted to making my own. A time-consuming and not always so predictable effort to say the least. Well, tonight, my world changed. We have just started frequenting a new pizza chain here in town, Papa Murphy's. At this particular establishment, you order your pizza, pick it up and bake it at home in your own oven. A few weeks ago, we tried a traditional pizza and found it to be very good. When we got our pizza, I noticed that it came with a menu of other pizzas that they could make. Lo and behold, they advertised a Chicago-style pizza . . . Right!!

Leaving my skepticism at the door, I broke down tonight and ordered one, hoping beyond hope that it would live up to my expectations. When I picked it up, it look pretty scrawny. I didn't have a good vibe about this. But after a few minutes in the oven, the whole pizza started to rise and look a little more promising. By the time the buzzer rang, I had a perfectly-cooked, golden-brown, double-crust, scallop-edged pizza. And the taste was even better. I'll concede that it still doesn't hold a candle to Gino's East, but it was definitely a respectable substitute. So if you ever stop through and have a hankering for some Chicago-style pizza while you visit us, just say the word and I'll order one up for you!

Cleaning for friends . . .

Why is it that I clean my house especially well when I know friends are coming over? I am hosting a book club tomorrow at my house. It won't be a particularly hard group to host. They are some of my closest friends. They don't expect a lot of food or fussing. Yet, I always seem to be compelled to clean just a little more thoroughly before they arrive.

I guess it's because I have a couple of friends who are especially neat and tidy. There are only rare moments that I ever see their house less than spotless. And those moments are usually short-lived. I assume that if they keep their houses that way, they probably expect other places to be equally as well-kept. In fact, I would bet that they notice when other houses aren't quite as clean. In fact, I know they do. Oh, they may not say anything, or they may even say that mess or dirt doesn't bother them. I'm not sure I buy it.

You see, several years and many kids ago, I used to be a neat-freak myself. My house was spotless any time of day, and I took great pride in that. I had a friend who was the exact opposite. I loved her to death, but was always amused at how untidy her house was. I would find myself "helping" her out when I went over for coffee. I would just quietly grab a dishcloth and start cleaning her breakfast table or maybe her counter top. Well now, the shoe is on the other foot. I find my friends quietly wiping up my counter or helping in other ways.

Don't get me wrong. I appreciate the help, but I don't want them to think I'm a slob. I'm really a neat-freak stuck inside a very over-busy, mother's body. So I clean just a little harder before people come over. I find it necessary to prove to them that the mess that normally prevails at our house has not gotten control of me. That being the mother of four is not as overwhelming as it looks. That I can handle it all and clean my own house, too. And yet, how does that make them feel, in turn? Doesn't it put the same pressure that I'm feeling right back on them?

I will never forget going into the bathroom of my neat-freak friend's home one time only to find it less than tidy. I'm not talking disgusting. There were just water marks and finger smudges here and there. The toilet paper roll was empty. The sort of stuff that happens in our homes every day. It was at that moment that I felt great relief. My friend's life was not perfectly kept . . . it was normal just like mine, complete with all of the little messes that come with it. I instantly felt a little more comfortable in her home.

This whole predicament leaves me with two choices. 1. Embrace the dust bunnies, finger smudges and piles of school papers as part of my God-given, blessed life or 2. keep on cleaning, putting on the facade of perfection that not only wears me out mentally and physically, but also puts a barrier up between my friends and me. I think I'll just clean the first floor today and call it a compromise!

Funny sayings . . .

Molly has been on a roll lately. She never ceases to amaze me with the things that she says. In all her comments, interject a good dose of attitude and spunk. Here are just a couple of things she has come up with recently. . .

Last week at football practice . . .
Me: Maybe we can go to get ice cream after football practice if you are really good. (yes, I do bribe my kids with food!)
Molly: Mom, I like the way you're thinkin'!

This morning as Maggie left for school. . .
Me: Bye, Maggie, have a great day. Love you.
Molly: Bye, Maggie. Love you. Oh (sigh). . . she's growing up so fast, isn't she?!

Hurricane Ike!

Haven't blogged lately. Just the normal excuses. Picking up 8 garbage cans full of debris in our backyard after 70+ mph winds due to Hurricane Ike, kids home from school due to long-term power outages from Hurricane Ike, lack of sleep due to wind noise from . . . Hurricane Ike. Did I mention that we live in the Midwest?!

Actually, thanking God that we are lucky enough to be this far inland and praying for those who aren't.

A Man and His Grill

After fifteen years of loyal service, our ol' Weber grill finally bit the dust. There's something so testosterone-laden about searching for the new perfect grill. It's not about color and style as women would generally look for first. It's purely about power - in other words . . . BTUs baby!! And our new grill has plenty of them . . . 42,000 to be exact. Enough to sear any steak or burger to mouth-watering perfection. Here's a little pic of the Big Daddy cooking up some of those manly elk burgers on his new "heated up to the max" grill. Now we just have to figure out what in the world to cook on that new little side burner that comes with it!

The Five Benefits of Cleaning Your Kitchen

I have decided that for the next couple of weeks, I am going to spend my precious few hours of freedom each school day cleaning my house from top to bottom until the whole thing sparkles and is completely sterile. Therefore, I started with the most important room - the kitchen. Now, I'm still not completely finished (I'm not kidding when I say it will be sterile when I'm done!), but much to my surprise, I found five wonderful benefits of my new cleaning regime . . .

1. After hours of dunking my hands in buckets of cleaning solution, the tips of my nails are now shiny white and clean. Just a coat of clear nail polish, and I'll look like I spent a day at the spa!

2. I set the automatic cleaning cycle on my oven and returned two hours later to a sparkly new oven - and took the credit for cleaning it!

3. When cleaning out the snack bins that I hid all my goodies in, I found the most decadent chocolate truffles from Whole Foods that I purchased three months ago. And in fact, they taste almost as good as when I first bought them!

4. Easy Off isn't just for ovens - it works great on my stove-top and my vent fan filters. Grease beware - my Easy Off has been unleashed!

5. I can count scrubbing the counter tops and mopping the floor as my workout for the day (at least I keep telling myself that)!

Okay, enough of the yapping . . . I'm off to clean again!

A Day in the Life . . .

There are moments when I feel , as a stay-at-home mother, that I'm just spinning my wheels. Many days, I wonder where the time has gone and what I actually got accomplished. So, I thought I would take a few moments to really look at how I spend my time. Here was what my day looked like yesterday.

6:15am - wake up to get in those 200 ab exercises. Will it really help after four children?
6:30am - pull ham off the bone that I cooked last night for split pea soup. Added to soup and package up in containers for a family in need.
6:45am - check on Maggie to see if she's getting ready for school.
7:00am - make breakfast for Maggie and coffee for myself and JT.
7:15am - take chicken from the other pot of soup I was working on last night to de-bone it at some point for chicken noodle soup for us.
7:30am - get rest of kids up for school
7:45am - get Maggie out the door to the bus.
8:00am - get breakfast for Matthew, Mason and Molly
8:15am - clean up dishes from last night's soup frenzy.
8:30am - make sure all kids have brushed their teeth and combed their hair.
8:45am - out to the bus with kids and second cup of coffee.
9:00am - throw in a load of laundry and start folding laundry from yesterday.
9:30am - organize all car-pool rides and schedules for nightly kids' sporting events.
10:00am - clean up basement in preparation to cut large pieces of material for stage curtains at church
10:30am - Throw another load of laundry in and fold some more.
11:00am - Work on e-mail and paperwork for school.
11:45am - Get Molly off the bus
12:30pm - Friend comes over to cut the material for church . . . all 100 yards of it!
2:00pm - Take a moment to play with Molly and get a little reading in.
2:30pm - Put one more load of laundry in. Forget the folding for now. I'll do it tonight.
3:15pm - Maggie returns from school. Take time to chat with her about her day.
3:30pm - start homemade cookies for the kids and for the family in need.
4:00pm - put salad together for family in need and package up rest of dinner.
4:30pm - deliver soup, salad, biscuits and cookies to family in need.
5:30pm - quick pour cereal for my family before football practices and youth group . . . what happened to that chicken noodle soup?!
5:45pm - leave to drop Maggie off at a friend's house so that she can get to youth group on time.
6:00pm - attend Kindergarten curriculum night.
7:00pm - clean up kitchen from food prep and "dinner".
7:30pm - take a call from a friend. A welcome break in the day, except that I continued to work in kitchen while talking.
8:00pm - work on homework with boys because they "forgot" about it right after school.
8:15pm - go pick up Maggie at youth group.
8:45pm - start getting the children to bed and fill out more paperwork from school.
9:00pm - Put last load of laundry in the washer and fold the rest of the laundry.
10:00pm - Finally flop into bed to watch the RNC and finish the book that I've been reading.

Not all days are that hectic, but it's not usually too far off. I just thought I would take a moment to "toot my own horn" and also congratulate all of you mothers out there who do all this and even more without batting an eye. It is a full-time job, and you do it well. Keep up the good work! You are all amazing women!