New Blog

So I'm becoming one of those people with multiple blogs


check out this one for a different area of my life: http://thesingledomesticadopts.blogspot.com

Welcome

So, as the title says this The Single Domestic Adopts - branching off the name of my other blog.

I've always wanted to adopt - but have just started the serious process of doing research and figuring out exactly what I want about six months ago. I'm giving myself plenty of time to really make sure I'm taking the right path to adoption - I'm not planning on starting the paperwork for 2-5 more years. So, the blog posts here will be a bit sporadic - but I did want a place to record some of my thoughts. I'm reading a book right now on Single Parent Adoption and it offers some "exercises" to do to help you sort out this whole process - so I may do some of those. The books seems more focused on making the decision of whether or not to be a single adoptive parent than the actual process of becoming one - and I've already decided that is what I want to do - so I may abandon the book midway through - we'll see. I have a stack of about 10 books on adoption and being a "Single Mother By Choice" to read through. "The Complete Guide to International Adoption" was EXTREMELY informative and helpful - I'll be reading that one again when I get closer to paperwork time.


In general. I'm leaning towards international adoption. Boy or girl. Aged 2-6. At one point I wanted to adopt a sibling group - but then decided I was crazy. Eventually I would like more than one - but more than one at first might put me a bit in over my head.

The hardest part for me at the moment is the "narrowing down" - - I can't adopt all the children in the world - so I have to have a way to "narrow" it down. I have to pick a country before I even pick an agency - and I feel like I'm rejecting thousands of children by choosing "Guatemala" over "India". Some of the choices are made for me - not all countries are crazy about single people adopting.

And then, a big question is the special needs issue. What types of special needs am I comfortable with? And that involves me being honest with who I am and my schedule. I know I couldn't give a child with severe special needs the time and attention they need - so they have to be off my list - and then you have to start picking exactly what "severe" means - who do I say "no" to? All the books tell you you must do this. That you must go into this eyes wide open knowing what you can handle - - but I have such a tendency to say "I can handle anything! I won't refuse any child!" - - but I can't do that - that is not wise at all.


And then once I have my list - when I say that I think I can be a good parent to a child with ADD but not to a child with severe autism - then I have to go through the referral process. Which, depending on which route I takes either involves me looking at a picture and whatever medical info is available on a child and saying "yes" or "no" - or it involves me actually visiting a country and meeting a few children and "picking" one of them. As if it were somehow natural to be able to decide anything about what your child is like. Yet, it must be done.


A lot of people worry about being able to love an adopted child as if it were their own. That has never been a worry of mine. I worry that I'll let my heart rush ahead and that I will accept I child I am not equipped to parent because I cannot imagine not loving a child who needs a family.

Guacamole

A couple of months ago I was hanging out with a friend of mine and decided we wanted a snack so she offered to make guacamole. Now, I am not a guacamole fan. I've tried the stuff a number of times and have never been all that impressed with the green gloop. However, this stuff she made was AMAZING!

Recipe:

One avocado - cut it like you see in the picture then scoop out the green stuff. Mash.

About a quarter of a cup each of chopped tomatoes and onions. (more or less to your taste preference).

The juice of 1 lime (I'm a big lime fan- if you're not you may just want to use half a lime)

1 tsp cilantro

Salt and Pepper to taste.

Mix.

Get a tortilla chip. Scoop. Eat. Yum!

It has a very...unique? Powerful? taste. I love it though. It also refrigerates well. (Though I have no idea for how long as it usually doesn't last more than two days around here.)

Gyro Burgers

As you may have noticed, I enjoy frequenting All Recipes to find new things to cook. The other day I stumbled across one of their columns called Single Servings. Basically the columnist picks out a number of recipes from the site, compiles the shopping list,and then gives you prep and cook instructions to give you a number of single-portion meals each month. I haven't actually gone through her entire recommended month of meals yet as I'm finding that I'm surprisingly picky about food. I like variety - but I like MY variety. It's great inspiration nonetheless. I forgot that all recipes lets you change the serving size of recipes (it scales the ingredients for you!) and that you can add the ingredients for any recipe you want to one compiled shopping list.

Anyway. Back to the point of this post. The August column included a recipe for Gyro style burgers that looked delicious - so I thought I'd try it out. Basically you take ground beef and lamb and mix in some spices and then grill the patty like a hamburger. My local grocery store didn't have any lamb and I didn't feel like hunting down specialty butcher so I just used all beef.

I grilled one patty on the George Foreman and froze the other three for a dinner at a later date. I sliced the burger into thin slices and put them inside of a wheat pita pocket. (Not all that impressed with the brand of pita pocket I got - I'll have to try another). I topped it off with some Tzatziki Sauce I had made earlier (using a cucumber from CSA. yay CSA!). If I had lettuce I would've added that - it was really good without it though.

I think the Indian Style Okra I posted about a few weeks ago would've made a great side dish to this. I'll have to try that combo next time. You have the cumin and the coriander in both things - but I think the taste is still different enough that it shares a common thread without being mono-flavor.

My New Favorite Sauce: Cocunut Curry

First of all, I apologize for the lack of posts here. I was doing so well with my regular updates! Then I had to go back to work and suddenly the great domestic question of the evening is no longer "What will I cook for dinner?" but "Which is more important: sleep, food, or lesson plans?"

Tonight "food" was the answer to that question and I cooked up a new dish using a coconut curry sauce I spied in the ethnic food aisle at the grocery store. It was YUM!

Very simple.

Cook about 1 cup of bite-sized chicken pieces in a pan with some olive oil until cooked through. Throw in about 1 cup of vegetables cut into bite sized pieces. (I used what I had on hand from CSA: squash, onions, and green beans). I cooked that for a few minutes. Then I poured in about half the bottle of the sauce and brought the mixture to a boil stirring often. Sprinkled in some cilantro and served. I would've made some white rice to go with it had I any rice -but I didn't - and it was still good. The sauce is a bit on the spicy side - which I love!

The only thing that wasn't great about it was that my green beans were a bit too crunchy. I guess I should have done something to them first. I don't know what I should have done to them as I've always been a "green beans come in cans" girl up to this point. I only know to snap the ends off because I watched Olivia and Esther Walton do it so often growing up. (By the way, I LOVE snapping beans. It is quite fun. Really. You should try it.)

The best part is that It was enough for dinner tonight and leftovers to take for lunch tomorrow. So I won't have to eat cafeteria food for lunch!