Self Expression and the Octopus

Does the line between personal and work need to be hard edged? I ask this because I find myself not writing, not blogging for days, Not because there isn't anything to say, but because this is my work blog. But, I'm me, at work or at home. In fact even more so since my work is AT my home!

So many things go on day to day and it's as if they write about themselves in my head. My brain becomes busy creating sentences, that never get written. I'm struggling a bit with this one and if anyone has any input, I'm all ears.

The struggle seems less of a struggle however if I take this back to the root of why it started. Why I'm writing in the first place. I just need to. Want to. There are stories to be told, things to be said and I want to say them. To anyone. To space and time. To God. When I'm in this place, the just needing to express myself space, I can do just that. Write about whatever is going on in my life that I want to express. When I start to filter myself, think about this as a "work" blog, it seems ridiculous that I would write about how I made octopus hot dogs for my boys last night for dinner. Yes, octopus hot dogs.

See, here I go because I have a need. A need to share this because it's so brilliant. I wish I could take the credit. It was going to be one of those easy dinner nights. A salad filled with beats, cucumber, carrot, feta cheese for Matt and I and hot dogs, home made mac-n-cheese with peas and broccoli for the boys. I almost couldn't bear to think that I was going to just serve them plain hot dogs, again, so I went to the all knowing internet to see what I could find. The search for "creative ways to serve a hot dog" brought me to a blog posting from this site....Workitmom. The post was how to make an octopus hot dog! Brilliant. I won't even try to recount the steps because it's done so well on her post. It's so simple and I have to say, a HIT!

Mason and Miles LOVED that they could eat a hot dog in a new and exciting way. Even watching them cook was fun. And the comment by the mom who blogged this is true. Just by taking more time to prepare the hot dog made me feel like it was more nutritious!

I of course had to take a couple of pictures to share. I should have taken some shots of the boys eating because Miles proceeded to amputate the octopus by eating it's legs one by one. Mason however, went straight for the head. Left all of it's legs just wiggling there until one by one, they were gone.

One of the best things about the octopus though is that by serving it this way, you completely take away the infamous "choking hazard" danger. Hot dogs are one of the leading causes of choking with children. There is even a petition that has been filed so that a warning label would have to be placed on the packaging of hot dogs stating that they are a choking hazard. O.K. that might be going a bit far, but if you serve your hot dogs like octopi, you wont have to worry about it.

Unless of course your child decapitates it like mason did and eats the head whole. ;-)

Bon Appetit!