Just got to find the right motivation...

I have been trying for several years now to get Alex to stop wiping his hands on his clothes while he is eating. Nothing has worked. So last week I told him if I caught him wiping his hands on his clothes he would have to pay me a quarter. After a few days he said “Ann, I haven’t wiped my hands on me for 3 days!” I enthusiastically responded with all the accolades I could. To which he responded, “I think I didn’t stop before because there was no punishment.” Aarrg!

I remember it exactly and I can still smell it too

It’s my birthday! Drove to Salt Lake for a meeting, took Alex to swimming lessons and someone came to look at our house (which is up for sale) so we had to go out for dinner. Darn! Really not too exciting. But I did get my FAVORITE white hot chocolate from my friend Marilyn. Thank you so much, Marilyn!! It’s the most incredible drink you can only get at Pannikin in San Diego. Jacob (our 11 year old) and I were just reminiscing about it on Saturday, how wonderful it is and how we wished we had some on that rainy day. Now I do!

There are few things better than a warm drink on a rainy day. Drinks of choice are White Heat, fresh mint tea, and Berry Patch tea. All have a special memory attached which makes them all the better. Pick up a warm cup of White Heat and then head down to see the seals at the Children’s pool in San Diego with all of my out of town guests. A rainy afternoon in China with Coreen, sitting in a café that’s trying to be European (the attempt is humorous but that creates even more memories), sipping fresh mint tea. And Rose, playing Mum, teaching us just how to hold our tea cup so while exclaiming “there’s nothing like a cup of tea” (referring to the chink of the cup on the saucer) with such fondness and pleasure that you can’t help but love it yourself too. I can’t wait for our new house to be completed so that we can move in and I can unpack all my china and teacups. This winter I promise myself to invite friends over for tea and conversation on a cold winter day.

Is there anything better than a memory that includes food? When the mere mention of the food brings back a flood of tastes on the tip of your tongue and a warm spot in your heart for whoever was with you? Of course, if I didn’t love food and food memories so much I wouldn’t be wondering why I can’t lose those extra few pounds all the time! Oh the trade-offs we must endure!

I really hope I can get my camera fixed soon or this blog isn’t going to get very interesting…

Summer Cooking with the Boys

My first summer with the boys I cooked all my favorite summer dishes. Lots of salads and cool summer meals. They hated most of them. So the next summer, thanks to a great idea from my friend Crystal, we started the Thumbs Up cookbook. Each boy was assigned a night to cook. We selected a number of categories for our cookbook and they each had to find a recipe to try for each category. After tasting dinner we had a family vote. Four out of six thumbs up and the recipe went in the cookbook. At the end of the summer the boy with the most recipes in the book won a prize. And there were prized for each category. This was amazing! It solved all the complaints. We got to try new things. Some of the recipes I had even made for them before, but since it was their idea, they actually liked them this time. The following summer the boys talked me into assigning them dishes on the same night they cooked. That was a bad idea. They wouldn’t cook anything that used more than one dish. They were over the competition aspect and we ended up eating the same thing every week.

I needed a new approach for this summer. So I went through my cookbooks and planned the entire summer. I picked meals most of them like (lots of variations of tacos). Nothing gets repeated except their 3 favorites: Ribs, hotwings and hamburgers. The boys still help 4 nights of the cooking. Todd BBQ’s on Fridays. Saturday is left overs or date night and I cook on Sundays. One night during the week I added a new recipe to try. Jacob really wanted to try things from different countries so we still get to experiment a bit. I told them if they didn’t want to cook what I had on the menu they could find a new recipe to try as long as they let me know before I do the shopping. So far it’s working great. I am the soux chef for the boys on their cooking night. I do lots of the chopping, prep and clean up as we go so they enjoy the cooking experience. And I have fun with them.

This week we have had Pizza Joes (sloppy joes with pizza sauce), tried a new Vietnamese shrimp salad and Skillet Tacos. Tonight Christian gets to make his favorite Alfredo (he’s quite good at it-from scratch even) and tomorrow Todd smokes ribs. I love it. I don’t have to think about what to eat and the boys seem to do better when I post the menu for the week. I think I freaked them out the first summer and they are always worried about what I am going to feed them.

I had full intentions of blogging when I created this account nine months ago. I don’t know what happened. Rachael was too much fun, we started building a new house and I discovered Facebook; all big time consumers. But I think now I am ready to commit to blogging. I liked the suggestion from my friend Amy, that writing is good for you. I could use that. When I was working I always felt like writing was the hardest part for me. Now that I’m not working and my skills keep deteriorating, my writing is getting even worse. So this will be good for me! Now I just have to decide where to start!

I named this blog Cutler Capers. Life since I became a Cutler. Yes, things have changed. The great part is that I am experiencing things I never thought I would be able to. I am learning. I am seeing a new part of life and I love it. Sometimes the learning is difficult. It isn’t always fun. But it feels right, it feels peaceful and it is rewarding. There are days when I still miss San Diego. I miss my friends. I miss good restaurants. I miss traveling with the girls. I miss fun and familiar things around San Diego. I miss going to lunch.

I thought I would miss a paycheck more than I do. When there isn’t anywhere fun to shop, you really don’t miss having money! And there are so many other things to keep me busy and out of trouble. I just put my budgeting skills to work and I am able to save for most things I want. It’s a great feeling to be able to save and buy what you want. I love that budgeting works. It’s sometimes a tedious task and I have to remind my husband that I am counting pennies when he wants something I think is useless (ha-ha, good thing he doesn’t see my occasional useless purchase). It’s also fortunate that we really like our own cooking better than most restaurants around here. So we save a lot of money there.