Yesterday, I recounted how well I did with my New Year’s goals.  Short answer: Not that well on many, but very well on others.  Today, I want to know how you did.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: How well did you do on your New Year’s Resolutions/Goals?  Did you stick to them or were they tossed aside?

P.S. If you haven’t already, go visit FollowerHQ and let me know what you think of my Twitter application.

P.P.S. For a bit of fun, try my other Twitter Application, Rout. It’s a +F in Fun!

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #119

At the beginning of the year, I gave myself the goal of completing 11 projects in 2011.  I called 2011 The Year of the Completed Project.  Even though there are still a couple of days left in the year, I figured I’d grade myself on my goals.  (F = Nothing done, D = Very little done, C = Some work done, B = A lot of work done, A = Project completed.

1. To Do List Sign – This seemed like an easy plan.  I already had a dry erase board.  All I needed were some hooks to hang i t up.  Easily done by January’s end, right?  Well, unfortunately, the dry erase board is still not up.  I couldn’t quite figure out where to hang it so it’d be visible to me but not a) look horrible on the wall or b) be in reach of the kids.  (Keeping a dry erase To Do list is no use if kids wind up erasing it.)  The boast still sits waiting to be hung and used.  Grade: F

2. Finish My “Packers” Story – This was meant to be finished in October.  I did get some writing done on it.  I now have a "future timeline" for the world mapping it out from the near-present day to the time that the story would take place.  I’ve further fleshed out the factions that would be in conflict in the story, along with their beliefs and motivations.  I also specified some of the individuals along with their motivations and secrets.  I even began writing some of the story.  It, however, remains unfinished.  Grade: B

3.  Math Board Game With NHL – This was to be completed in March.  No work was done on this though.  To be honest, I think he’s outgrown my original concept.  I’m wondering if the entire concept should be scrapped.  Perhaps I should redo it to be an introduction to role playing games where we make up and play monster cards.  We could use the cards we’ve already made and make more.  Still, since no progress was made, I’d give myself an F on this one.

4.  Upstairs Play Room – I actually finished this one (or very nearly did) and since we moved more of their toys up there it’s gotten a bit cluttered again.  Plus, it’s still not the most convenient place to go.  Despite all this, the boys like playing there.  I’d give this a B.

5.  Paint the Door – Didn’t do any of this.  F.

6. Paint the Ceiling – Nope.  Didn’t touch it at all.  Another F.

7. Shred, Shred, Shred – I didn’t shred all of our papers using our shredder, but I did find out about a public shredding day.  I brought a few boxes of papers there (including some stuff from the cleaning of the play room) and they shredded it for me.  We still have more to shred, but it’s just one box (not anywhere close to full) now, not multiple full boxes.  Grade: A

8. Repair Desktop PC – This one’s kind of a cheat.  The dead desktop PC has been moved to our attic, but it turns out that I didn’t need to fix it.  My parents had a space PC that they didn’t need and offered it to us.  I set it up and we now have the ability to do everything our old computer could do.  Well, except print.  It seems that our printer ran out of ink and is so old that they don’t make ink for it anymore.  However, since that wasn’t part of the initial goal, I’m still giving this one an A.

9. How It Works Blog Series – I didn’t do any work on this one.  F.

10. Kids Game Review Blog Series – No work done on this one either.   However, NHL’s turned into quite the gamer so perhaps this is something I could do in the future.  For now, though, it’s an F.

11. The PB Files – I never did any work on this either.  It’s an F for this as well.

All in all, that’s 2 A’s, 2 B’s, and 7 F’s.  Overall grade would be a D.  I didn’t even update my "Finish What I Started" series after awhile.  (Mainly because it would have been a very short blog post: "Still no progress.")

However, besides my 2 completed projects and 2 "significant progress" projects, I did quite a few big freelance projects.  These projects weren’t on my radar when I began the year.  In addition, I conceived of and programmed two Twitter applications: FollowerHQ and Plus Rout.  Therefore, despite the incomplete projects, I’d definitely call this year a success.

On Sunday, as part of our Lazy Day In, B and I stayed in our PJs all day.  Ok, I tossed some clothes on to get our traditional Chinese food Christmas dinner, but otherwise it was PJs for the whole day.

Towards the end of the day, before dinner was ordered, B and I decided that we should both take showers.  We had just washed and changed the sheets on all of our beds.  (Ok, so it wasn’t a completely lazy day.)  We figured we shouldn’t go to sleep that night without having showered.

As part of my day’s activities, I had resurrected an old laptop we had.  So the boys both had computers to play on.  They were both occupied so I dared to suggest we shower together.  It’s been awhile since we’ve done anything like this and it seemed like a golden opportunity.

B and I got ready.  We got into the shower and B adjusted the water temperature.  Then, as the temp was just right… NHL came walking into the bathroom.

Did I mention that we only have one bathroom on the ground floor?  There we were in the shower with NHL just inches from us on the other side of the curtain.  No, we weren’t engaged in any "activities", but it did mean that any hope of "activities" was rapidly dwindling.  NHL wasn’t rushing either, but decided to talk to B for a bit.

I kept quiet at first until B gave away that I was in there.  NHL was surprised but didn’t question why dad would get into the shower with mom.  He probably figured that we were saving water.  (Yeah, saving water.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!)

This seems to be a recurring theme in our lives.  I’ll admit, there are days when I miss our pre-kid years.  In those before-kid times, we could go out to a romantic dinner or just spend some quality time indoors on a whim.  Now, we need to plan when we can drop the kids off at B’s parents house and when we need to pick them up.  Spousal quality time seems all too lacking no matter how much we try to make it a priority.

Still, we’re not going to stop trying.  Having a child burst in on you when you’re having a quiet moment together is just one of the many challenges about being a parent.

Luckily, there are always ideas to be had at EdenFantasys. Perhaps we can take a few quiet moments, while the kids are otherwise occupied, and give each other a massage.  Or maybe we can find some "toys" to help add excitement when we would otherwise give in to exhaustion at the end of a long day.  If we’re running low on ideas ourselves, we can also head on over to EdenFantasys Forums to ask other people for ideas.  Yes, B and I are always on the hunt for ways to maximize our Us Time.

Disclaimer: This post was written as part of the EdenFantasys Ambassador program.  I received an EdenFantasys gift card, but the opinions expressed above are my own.

This weekend was quite busy.  We started out shopping for bunk beds.  You see, JSL is still in his toddler bed.  However, despite our insisting, he’s growing up.  He’s going to need a regular bed.  Unfortunately, the boys’ room is too small for two twin-sized beds.  So we’re going to have to go vertical.

We think we’ve made our decision, so now we just need to purchase it.  Then, the fun part will be preparing the boys’ room for the bunk bed arrival and setup.  I’ll need to dismantle NHL’s current bed, JSL’s current bed, move a ton of stuffed animals, move toys out of the way, remove some Cars wall clings (that the bunk will likely just cover up), etc.  Of course, I can’t do all this too early or the boys will have nowhere to sleep.

In addition, to looking at bunk beds, we needed to pick up NHL’s painted Angry Bird.  I knew that the colors would be more vibrant once it was finished, but I was still quite impressed.

The boys begged to do some more projects right then and there, but the store was closing in a few hours and we had to get home (refrigerator/freezer groceries in the trunk).

The next day, however, was a lazy day in.  It was Christmas Day and, while we don’t celebrate, we decided to make it a family day.  Ok, the fact that most stores are closed might have factored into it.  Plus, the laziness thing.  Having a lazy day in every once in a while is good.

We mainly spent the day playing computer games and watching TV, including the Disney Parks Christmas Parade.  The boys love parades, though they repeatedly expressed frustration over this one.  Too much singing and not enough characters.  Oh, and when NHL saw Justin Bieber, he let out a loud "Yuck!"  I was so proud. *wipes away a tear*

We ended Christmas Day with our traditional Jewish Christmas Day Dinner: Chinese food.  I lobbied to go out to eat.  Either to a nice, sit-down restaurant or to a buffet.  I even tried inviting B’s parents to come with us, figuring that would help push us to get ready.  Still, though the boys were dressed, B and I were still in our PJs.  (Like I said: Lazy day!)  So we ordered takeout.  I tossed on some clothes and picked it up.

Pretty soon, JSL was munching on rice with sweet and sour chicken sans sauce. (We call it "Chinese Chicken Nuggets" to get JSL to eat it.)  NHL had the sweet and sour chicken and some chicken and broccoli.  B and I shared some steamed vegetable dumplings, vegetable egg rolls, and General Tso’s Bean Curd.  (Bean curd is tofu and tastes better than it sounds!)  Behold, my Christmas Dinner:

Yes, I know what you’re thinking.  Jews eating Chinese food for Christmas dinner.  How stereotypical!  Well, it’s our tradition and I’m a sucker for tradition (and Chinese food).

Hope your Christmas weekend was wonderful no matter how you celebrated it!

Not too long ago, I was given the opportunity to review Transformers Prime: Darkness Rising for Kailani over at An Island Life.  (There’s a giveaway for that too, so head on over and enter.)  My boys loved it as did I.  For me, it brought back a lot of memories of shows I loved growing up.  I was a huge Transformers fan and always would beg my parents for a new Transformer to add to my collection.  The only rival to Transformers was He-Man.  I still have some of my old Transformers packed away somewhere.

Besides Transformers, the boys have been re-discovering some gems from the past.  They’ve watched Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends on Roku via Netflix.  They don’t seem to get how cheesy it is and instead simply enjoy the superhero stories.  They’ve also watched Batman: The Animated Series and The Super Mario Bros Super Show.

It seems that some shows (or show concepts in the case of Transformers) don’t really age all that badly and kids don’t always need a flashy new show to be entertained.  Sometimes, an older show will entertain them just as much.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Do you have a show that you grew up with that your kids enjoy watching?

P.S. If you haven’t already, go visit FollowerHQ and let me know what you think of my Twitter application.

P.P.S. For a bit of fun, try my other Twitter Application, Rout. It’s a +F in Fun!

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #118

I love cooking squash.  It’s pretty easy to make and goes in a variety of dishes.  Spaghetti squash has a bonus, though.  It looks like pasta after it is cooked!  This means you can make pasta-like dishes with it.

For this recipe, you’ll need a spaghetti squash, some sliced mushrooms, onions, garlic, jarred (or homemade) spaghetti sauce, chickpeas, and ricotta cheese.

First, we’ll slice the squash in half and remove the seeds and "goo" (that’s a scientific cooking term) in the middle.  Don’t toss those seeds, though.  You can bake them later for a tasty snack.

Place the squash halves face down on a greased cookie sheet and bake for about 30 – 40 minutes (depending on how heavy your squash is).

While the squash bakes, sauté some onions and garlic.  Then, add some mushrooms and cook them down.

When the squash is done, use a fork to pull the flesh off of the shell.  The spaghetti squash will string out just like… well, spaghetti.  Put this in a big pan.

Mix the squash with the mushrooms, chickpeas, sauce and ricotta cheese.

Then, you simply serve and enjoy.

I’ve made this dish quite a few times.  It’s relatively quick, easy and very healthy.  It also makes quite a bit.  One spaghetti squash can last make enough to last us for two or three dinners.

Everyone gather round.  It’s story time.  Today, we’re going to hear the story of the Maccabees.  You see, a long time ago, the Syrians ruled the land of Israel.  The Jews were allowed to go about their business until Antiochus Epiphany came to power.  Antiochus decided that the Jews should all worship the way *HE* told them to worship.  Or else.

Some of the Jews went along with the order.  They dropped their old religion and began worshiping Zeus because it was easier than standing up to the king (and his army).  The Maccabees, though, refused to change their beliefs simply because someone threatened them.  They believed that they had the right to worship as they saw fit and they were willing to fight for that right.

And fight they did.  The Maccabees gathered a group of Jews who believed similarly.  They were outnumbered and outgunned (in a manner of speaking – guns weren’t used back then), but they had the advantages of surprise and knowledge of the terrain.  They used these to drive the Syrian army away and reclaim their religious freedom.

This story is chock full of lessons.  Usually, people take the obvious moral of religious freedom from it.  The Syrian king was wrong to impose his religious beliefs on others. People should be able to worship whatever god they want (or no god at all) however they choose.  Recent events, though, have led me to take a slightly different lesson from the story: Don’t back down to bullies.

Antiochus was a bully, albeit one with an army at his disposal.  He wanted to set the rules for others to follow and, if they didn’t follow it, he demanded they be punished.  He couldn’t stand to see people doing things that he personally didn’t approve.

Many of the Jews, when faced with the bully, backed down.  They gave in and just did what the bully told them to do.  This is the quick and easy path.  (Sorry, the geek in me couldn’t help quoting Yoda.)  The Maccabees didn’t give in, though.  They stood up to the bully.  They refused to let the bully silence them or dictate the terms of their lives.

As a victim of bullying growing up, I promised myself that I would never let myself be silenced by bullies again.  Once I became a father, I knew that I wanted to teach my sons not to back down to bullies also.  This doesn’t need to mean physical violence, but it also doesn’t mean you should cower in fear.

Recently, I found myself sitting in silence.  A bully that had targeted me in the past had turned her attention to others and I didn’t want to speak up lest she turn her eye back to me.  I wasn’t cowering in fear, as this particular bully has no power over me.  Still, I just didn’t want to have to deal with her antics again .  Then it struck me: Would the Maccabees have done this?  More importantly, do I want to teach my sons to keep quiet when someone is bullying someone else?  The answer to both is a resounding NO!

Over the past 18 months (off and on), I’ve been the target of a bully.  I won’t go into her history too much.  You can read about that elsewhere.  Instead, I want to talk about her current activities.  She’s begun targeting bloggers, specifically review bloggers as well as blogger networks like MomCentral, MomSelect, Business2Blogger, and MyBlogSpark.  She’ll claim that they are fakes, will demand they take down their blogs, and will try reporting them to companies.  Amazingly, some companies are listening to her!

In this woman’s mind, all of these blogs and networks are run by a group of 4 or 5 people to steal products.  Her evidence?  She was told this by God.  Yes, she is a self-proclaimed prophet of God.

You can read more about her here:

http://blogs.babble.com/momcrunch/2011/12/19/bloggers-targeted-by-woman-claiming-gift-of-prophecy/

http://mombloghate.com/9/bully-profile-dawn-gordon/

As I said before, I’m through staying silent.  If you’ve been threatened, please speak up.  If you haven’t been threatened (yet), please send this information to every blogger you know.  Spread the word.  Let’s send the message that we bloggers don’t take kindly to bullies and will protect our fellow bloggers if threatened.

On Sunday, JSL had a birthday party to go to.  So, when I picked NHL up from Hebrew school, it was just the two of us.  What to do, what to do.  Luckily, B came up with a great idea to leverage NHL’s love of art class: Pottery painting.

After going out to lunch (at a favorite of NHL’s and mine, Five Guys), we went to a nearby pottery painting location.  The staff member who greeted us explained the setup.  We would get to pick out whatever we wanted to paint.  When we were done, we would be charged for the item plus a fee per painter per hour.  Paints, equipment, and firing was included in those fees.  NHL and I looked over the selection and a few items stood out.  Finally, though, NHL found exactly what he wanted.

An Angry Birds pencil holder.

Sorry for the poor photo quality.  I had, in my rush to pick NHL up, forgotten to take my camera with me.  I was limited to my cell phone camera.  (This isn’t the first time I’ve forgotten my camera recently.  Clearly, I need more sleep!)

We filled out the paperwork and were brought a bird for NHL to paint.  The first step was to wash our project.  This removed dust and other items that might interfere with the paint.

When this was done, we were given a tutorial in painting by another staff member.  You would think painting is pretty self-explanatory, but it’s actually quite complicated.  Simply putting one coat of paint on the bird would result in a washed-out looking bird.  You need to dry the paint first (by using some fans they have set up) and then apply two or three coats.  In addition, the paints don’t seem as vibrant when they go on as they are after the project is fired.

NHL was actually very patient through this.  I expected him to be antsy and trying to run off to paint.  Instead, he listened to all of the possibilities and pitfalls.  He even asked a few questions and pointed a few things out.

Then, it was paint time.  We chose some colors based on the paints on the wall.  (Tiles pre-painted and fired to show you what the colors would look like when done.)  NHL chose five that he liked and they were brought to him.  As they were brought over, NHL chose some brushes and sponges to work with.

We got back to the table and NHL began painting.

Slowly, but surely, the bird began to take shape.

Finally, NHL’s bird was done.

This is one colorful bird.  Don’t worry, though, pigs.  This guy’s not about to fling himself at you.  (I was quite clear about that with NHL.)  Instead, we left him to be fired and finished.  He’ll be done Saturday, so we’ll return then.  NHL and I both can’t wait to see the finished product.

NHL had a blast with the painting.  We wound up only staying for an hour, but he loved every minute of it.  Still, it isn’t an inexpensive endeavor.  The entire project (bird and one hour of painting) cost us $28.  This obviously isn’t something we’ll do on a weekly basis, but for special events, I could definitely see us doing this again.