An Interesting Revelation

Ah May. Is it May already? Are we ALREADY halfway through May? Between my son's 1st birthday, Mother's Day, and my birthday, May is a crazy busy month for us. Heck, the entire summer is super busy for us.

It being May, I've noticed that a lot of grocery stores and other retailers are starting to advertise Spring Cleaning! events. I've had my spring cleaning done for a few weeks now since I started in January.

Throughout this years spring cleaning season (January-April for me), I discovered something interesting about myself:

I feel like I don't deserve a clean house.

Its stupid, I know. But I noticed that whenever my kitchen is spotless, or there aren't a bazillion toys on the floor because I made the kids cleanup before bedtime, I have this weird sense that something is wrong because my house isn't a mess.

It doesn't make any sense, because I totally deserve to have a clean house. And I am 100% capable of having a clean house with minimal work, but for some reason, my mind tells me its wrong. Maybe its because I was never able to keep my room clean as a kid. Maybe its because I've never been a good housekeeper. Maybe I feel like because I have two kids, that I should be constantly doing housework, and if I'm not, something is wrong.

Who knows.

I've come up with a cleaning schedule that allows me to do one room a day. If I stay on top of it, my daily housework is less than an hour every day. And my house gets a full cleaning every week. I could also use some more sleep. I really go to bed much later than I should, which results in my day getting started much later than I like. I've tried staying accountable to a good friend (who is also a SAHM with 2 kids), but I find that if I DON'T get my cleaning done, that I feel even worse about myself which just contributes to the problem.

Here's the thing though, when my house is clean, things are SO much smoother around here. My daily housework takes me 30 minutes tops and then the rest of my day is free. It takes so much stress off of me and my kids. I'm not constantly worrying about what Aaron is gonna find and put in his mouth. I have more time to play with Penelope. I don't worry about where Luna is sneaking off to to devour dirty underwear or secretly pee somewhere. Cooking dinner is so much less of a problem because everything is clean and put away and I don't have to wonder where is that measuring spoon?

So I work really hard and go through a marathon cleaning day week and get my house spotless and then I can finally relax right? Nope. That's when the sabotage happens. My mind starts telling me things like "This is so not you. You're not one of these 'house is always clean' sorta people. You couldn't even keep a 2 bedroom apartment clean. How are you supposed to keep your house clean? And look at your BASEMENT! You don't really clean. All you do is shuffle things around so they LOOK clean, but you know the truth!..." and so on.

So I stop doing my daily housework. And the whole thing falls apart and it looks like a tornado has ripped through. Then I start feeling guilty about having a messy house. "Look at you. You can't even keep your house clean. You can't even stay on top of your dishes for one lousy day. And now you're SO TIRED that you can't even get off the couch to do any work" And so on and so forth. So I do a marathon cleaning, get the place spotless, and then the cycle starts all over again.

It's quite a cruel cycle.

And I don't know how to stop it.

All I can do is keep trying.

Nomato Sauce Revisted

I have gotten such a huge response from people wanting the nomato sauce recipe that I've decided to go ahead and do a post about it, giving the full recipe here. That way, you guys can bookmark it and have it at your reference whenever you need it. Enjoy!

Nomato Sauce:

2 1/2 cup steamed carrots

1/3 cup steamed beets

2/3 cup Water

3 tablespoon Lemon juice

1 1/2 teaspoon Salt

1 tablespoon Basil

1/2 teaspoon Onion Powder

1/8 teaspoon Oregano

3/4 cup chopped cooked onions (I use dried flakes equivalent),

1 clove minced garlic

Steam carrots and beets until tender.

Brown onion & garlic together.

Measure all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.

Nomato Ketcup (recipe from here):

1 (16 ounce) can jellied cranberry sauce

1 (16 ounce) can pear halves in natural juice drained

1 (16 ounce) can sliced carrots drained

1/2 cup white vinegar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup white corn syrup Karo

4 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Process all ingredients in a blender until smooth, about 30 seconds. Store in refrigerator.

Nomato Barbecue Sauce (recipe from here)

2 cups tomato-free ketchup

2 Tbsp red wine vinegar

2 Tbsp soy sauce

1 Tbsp brown sugar

1/8 tsp black pepper

Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan. Bring to boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

This recipe yields approximately 2 cups of barbecue sauce.

Someone had complained that the nomato sloppy joe recipe I posted had nightshades in it, and indeed it does. I hadn't made it clear that the recipe I posted was used for reference that I had not put any of the nightshades listed in the recipe in the meal. To help clear that up, here's the recipe again, this time without any nightshades in it.

Nightshade Free Sloppy Joes (original recipe here)

2 tsp olive oil   

1 small uncooked onion(s), chopped   

2 rib(s) (medium) uncooked celery, chopped   

1 pound(s) uncooked ground turkey breast   

2 tsp dried basil   

1/2 tsp table salt   

1/4 tsp black pepper   

20 oz nomato sauce (see above)

1/4 cup(s) nomato ketchup (see above)

1 Tbsp Dijon mustard

1 cup(s) frozen corn kernels, thawed   

8 item(s) mixed grain hamburger roll(s) 

Heat oil in a large nonstick saucepan over medium-high heat.

Add onion and celery and sauté until tender, 3 minutes. Add turkey and sauté until browned, breaking up the meat as it cooks, 5 minutes. Add basil, salt and black pepper; stir to coat. Add nomato sauce, nomato ketchup and mustard; mix well.

Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat, partially cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, 30 minutes.

Stir in corn and simmer 2 minutes to heat through. Spoon mixture onto rolls and serve hot.

There ya go! I hope this clears up any confusion on that last recipe. I also included a link to the original recipe in case someone is looking for that too. Enjoy everyone! Please don't hesitate to email me with any questions! :-)