Tuesday Night Ramblings!

Happy Tuesday night! It’s a quiet night at home – my 9-year-old is playing with his new Angry Birds game (a recent birthday gift) and Teacher Man has conferences tonight at school so he won’t be home until later. I was super productive when I got home – made dinner, baked a batch of Joe’s favorite banana chocolate chip muffins, put together a crockpot meal of sloppy joes for tomorrow, put a load of laundry in the washing machine, supervised homework and piano practice, and even did some yoga and strength exercises while watching the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.  I’d like to think this is all because I’m super energized to get things done; however, it is more likely that I am procrastinating on getting some office work done tonight.

This leads me to a couple of random thoughts:

1) Does anyone else’s kid want to eat the same exact thing for breakfast every morning?  That’s my Joe on weekdays – he loves these particular banana chocolate chip muffins and he would eat them Every Single Day if I let him. (The recipe, just for the record, is pretty healthy – heavy on the bananas, just a little vegetable oil and about 190 calories a muffin – actually less than that, because I make smaller muffins than the recipe calls for. And yes, some mini chocolate chips. That’s not too bad, right?) Weird kid, he is, when it comes to food. I should probably do a full-on blog post about that same day.

2) Can you do yoga and watch the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills at the same time, or is this counter-productive? I did tonight. This probably defies the yoga mantra of clearing the mind of stress and thinking only pure and peaceful thoughts. (Have you seen those Housewives? Anything but peaceful.) Honestly, though, all the Real Housewives shows are a guilty pleasure of mine. Big-time. Teacher Man has the History Channel. I have Bravo. And I am okay with that.

My office is crazy-busy-swamped this time of year. Seriously. We’re about one month away from our annual convention and trade show for the poultry industry (the Midwest Poultry Federation Convention) and I feel like I have 12,000 things to do – all at once. Okay, obviously this is a major exaggeration. Perhaps I should have tried harder to de-stress during yoga tonight. But there is a ton to do to get ready for about 2,000 turkey, chicken and egg farmers and poultry company representatives who come into Saint Paul in March for the 2nd largest poultry show in the U.S. It will all get done. It always does. I’m just not quite sure how yet.

But … before I get to March, I get to San Diego. (This is where I let out a tiny little woot woot!) I will travel next week to the National Turkey Federation Annual Convention to attend meetings, listen to speakers and see all my poultry peeps. (Ha – I had to write that!) I’m just a tad bit excited. Okay, I could almost start packing now. Except that I haven’t decided how many pairs of shoes I’m bringing. Big decision.

Another random thought for tonight … did you see the Ram Trucks commercial dedicated to farmers during the Super Bowl? Duh. Of course you did. (If you didn’t, check it out:)

It thrilled my little agnerd soul to see farmers featured in front of 111.3 million viewers. Since it aired, there has been fair amount of controversy about the ad and the faces of the farmers it showed, along with the narrator, the late Paul Harvey. I’m not going to regurgitate all that; instead I’m just going to be happy the ad generated so much interest and discussion from farmers and non-farmers alike. And I also want to share a few excellent blog posts about this subject from Beef Magazine, Pinke Post,  CNN Eatocracy, Everyday Epistle and Dairy Carrie (quick read and so true of farmers!).

Guess what? Tuesday blog post (full of random thoughts) done and I already feel less stressed. Until next time, folks … gobble on!