The BEST Taquitos EVER!

Do you love Taquitos? I do. They're perfect. A little tortilla filled with meat. They are great for dipping, great for kids. Crunchy. Yummy. Delicious.

But I've never made them before. I typically buy them from Costco or at restaurants. However, a friend of mine (Erin L.) suggested this recipe from Our Best Bites.

Oh.My.Gosh.

Even the wonderful and palate-discerning Erik liked them, despite the presence of the hated-cilantro. This was a big deal. Cilantro is like a big no-no in the Wilhelmsen house. In fact I never cook with it because he dislikes it so much. Reagan yesterday, while I was chopping it said, "What is that disgusting smell?" So, yeah, the kids are not used to that beautiful aroma. Yet.

Anyways, back to the dinner. Delicious. Too spicy for the kids, though. Next time I'll tone down the chili powder and instead of pepper jack cheese I'll just use cheddar or, for an even better taste, Monterrey jack. Last night I used half-and-half pepper jack and cheddar and it was too spicy for the kids. Also I decreased the cilantro by more than half; I just wanted the hint without overpowering Erik's taste buds.

Erik and I practically inhaled them they were that good. And Erik even took the leftovers for lunch, which is huge because he NEVER takes leftovers.

Don't miss the final step, though. Sprinkle kosher salt on the tops after spraying with cooking spray. It gave the taquitos that I've-got-to-have-just-one-more taste. I love that taste.

So, here's the recipe. I can't recommend it enough. Our Best Bites just might be my new go-to for weeknight meals! And no, I didn't take pictures. I don't do that.

Creamy Chicken Taquitos

Book Review: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

I read "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" by Amy Chua recently. And I can't wait to talk about it!

Ever want to know why Asian kids are so disciplined? How do the Asian parents inspire their kids to be such high achievers?

If you're looking for a how-to manual, this may be it. If you're looking for an interesting and enjoyable memoir on parenting through the younger years, this is definitely it. If you're looking for a cushy, "I LOVE MY KIDS!" kind of book, STAY AWAY.

I really admire most of the Asian parenting techniques. I think American parents, Westerners, are on the whole too easy going about challenging their children. I know that is a generality. I know there are exceptions. However, isn't it kind of true? Doesn't society as a whole say, "Oh, that's too hard. Don't worry about trying to achieve that."?

Chua states that American parents just don't love their kids enough to push them to a higher level of academics or performance. At least that is what the Asians think.

I don't want to agree with that. However, I can't help but think about what the Bible says about parenting and discipline. After all, it comes down to discipline, doesn't it? Asian parents are harsher disciplinarians than Western parents. Asian kids are afraid of disappointing their parents because there are harsh consequences if they do.

A few scriptures about discipline for us to contemplate: Psalm 94:12 "Blessed is the one you discipline, Lord, the one you teach from your law." And Provers 1:7 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction."

I liked this book because Chua's techniques, while admittedly harsh, seemed to make sense to me. Her biggest disappointment in her life was the disappointment of her father in her for some mediocre grade she once got. She was trying to impart the same values into her daughters. It kind of worked.

Her first daughter, true to first-born fashion, didn't really rebel against her mother. Sure they got into fights, but the first daughter was mostly submissive. And she turned out very accomplished. I think she went onto Yale, is a concert pianist, etc.

However, the second daughter was rebellious, in an Asian way. For instance, she would practice her violin, but she would purposefully play it badly.

I do not like a lot of how Chua treated her daughters: she yelled at her daughters, called them names, etc. All things I abhor. She made them practice their instruments on family vacations. She forced them into the student orchestras. When the girls were infants, she hired a Chinese nanny and made them speak Mandarin at home. She sacrificed time as a family for the pursuit of excellence in these areas by traveling to New York City for practice sessions with masters, every weekend. She and her husband had a lot of fights because they disagreed a lot about how she was raising the children.

But she also saw her children with incredible potential. And she wasn't going to let up until they believed it about themselves. And she also wasn't going to give into their fleeting and childish wants. I mean, what child actually knows how hard to work at something to be good? If we left it to children to be a good reader, only one in ten would actually motivate themselves. Instead, we have to practice with our children daily. We have to be there to help with the words. We have to make them sit down and read for 10-15 minutes, at least, every day. We have to limit their distractions so they choose a book rather than the television.

I think this is what Chua was doing for her girls with practicing the violin and piano. As an adult we have the benefit of perspective that children do not have. We know how beneficial it is to be good at something, whether that be as basic as reading or as advanced as violin. We know, either from our own experience of excellence or failure, whether we could have put more effort into something.

The current parenting philosophy says children need to be happy to have a good childhood. I couldn't disagree more. I think happiness is entirely a matter of chance (as Charlotte says about marriage in "Pride & Prejudice") and decision on the part of the individual. As a mother, I consider it my higher calling that the children learn to see past their own situations to the bigger picture of being in God's will. The means of getting there include practice, discipline and most importantly, grace when we fail.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Chua has missed out on the best gift she could have given her children. Yes she demonstrated hard work and sacrifice, but it's futile without a purpose or calling from God. And since of course they would fail, there was disappointment without the comfort of grace. As followers of Jesus we can pursue excellence in life for His glory and know that when we fail, we fall into His loving, caring arms. That's what I hope my kids learn from me.

Mrs. Chua did learn a lot from her experience with her second daughter. After becoming quite accomplished at the violin, she wanted to give it up. It was after a death in the family that Chua relented and allowed her daughter absolute freedom to choose an activity. She chose tennis. She was terrible. At first. And then she wanted to get better. And since she knew what it took to get good at something (time, practice, repetition, drive, discipline) she got good. She even won tournaments.

I love this! I think it was so important that her daughter know what hard work looks like. So that when given the freedom to choose an area, she would pursue excellence. She would know HOW to pursue excellence.

Mrs. Chua was humbled by her daughters, and I get the feeling that she is a tad bit remorseful about how she treated them in the early years.

But I don't think she regrets it entirely.

Menu 8/28-9/3

Can you believe I just published my weekly menu!?!? In case you need help motivating yourself to menu plan. Here's mine.

Semantics

When the media says "Revenue Increases" you should hear "Tax Increases".

Budget Deficits: 2008 vs. 2011

In 2008 the country was running a deficit of a shade under $500 Billion.

That was too high. Bush allowed Congress to pass through a lot of subsidies and entitlements, which when combined with TARP, a monetary bailout for a car company, and the collapse of the housing market due to poor Congressional oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, grew the federal budget deficit from $167 Billion all the way up to about $480 Billion.

Not good. I spoke out against all of those things at the time in posts like this one, and this one, I'm sure there's more but I don't have time to reread my blog. (Man, I should be tagging stuff!) This kind of spending, on the Right or the Left, amounts to horrible domestic policy.

As you may know, the Congress just agreed to raise the debt limit to, get ready, $14.5 TRILLION. That is three TIMES the WORST budget deficit we had under Bush.

So, you tell me. Who is being irresponsible here? I know Bush's domestic policy had it's faults. But certainly nothing compares to this kind of waste and mismanagement under the helm of Obama.

Inflation, Anyone?

This week's topic is about the current inflation rate in the United States and how the reported inflation rate does not give an accurate picture of what is going on in households.

Inflation is the overall general upward price movement of goods and services in an economy (often caused by a increase in the supply of money), usually as measured by the Consumer Price Index and the Producer Price Index. Over time, as the cost of goods and services increase, the value of a dollar is going to fall because a person won't be able to purchase as much with that dollar as he/she previously could. While the annual rate of inflation has fluctuated greatly over the last half century, ranging from nearly zero inflation to 23% inflation, the Fed actively tries to maintain a specific rate of inflation, which is usually 2-3% but can vary depending on circumstances. The opposite of deflation.

Our current rate of inflation is 3.56%. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is what the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics uses to calculate the inflation rate. The CPI rates everything from fuel, to food, to medical expenses.

I have linked the BLS's CPI report for the month of June 2011. Interestingly, they release a CPI monthly. I find this interesting because I don't think it's an especially useful tool monthly. It's more useful as a yearly indicator of what has occurred in an economy.

However, let's look at the CPI for energy and food. Let's look at food. The BLS reports that although the index for food dropped a tad from May to June, overall, "The index for food at home has risen 4.7 percent over the last 12 months, with all the major groups increasing 3.2 percent or more." Oh, we're feeling that one, aren't we? It sounds so non-threatening in a report like that doesn't it? But let that sink in.

Food has gone up in price by nearly 5% in 12 months. We are paying about 5% MORE this June for the same things we bought last June.

On to energy. The energy index fell in June 4.4% from May, the largest drop since December of 2008. But keep in mind that gasoline prices have fallen partly because the Strategic Oil Reserves are being used to keep our prices artificially low. (I say artificially because it's not a true indicator of a reduction in prices because we have a temporary alternative supply. The Strategic Oil Reserves can't supply forever.)

Here's the money quote:

Despite the recent declines, the gasoline index has increased 35.6 percent over the past 12 months. The index for household energy also decreased in June, falling 1.2 percent after rising 0.5 percent in May. The index for natural gas rose 0.4 percent, but the electricity index declined 1.6 percent and the index for fuel oil fell 2.2 percent. The household energy index has risen 2.8 percent over the last 12 months, with the fuel oil index up 37.3 percent and the electricity index up 1.5 percent but the index for natural gas down 0.8 percent.

So, there it is. In ONE YEAR we are paying 37.3% MORE for gasoline.

This makes me so mad I could spit. And here we are sitting upon some of the richest oil sources in the entire world and President Obama remains unmoved! He hasn't lifted the moratorium on drilling for oil. And we are drying up financially because of it.

Anyways, this post was about inflation. We have a relatively low inflation rate across all goods and services, but where it counts, in food and fuel, we are being killed.

15 more months...15 more months...15 more months...

Why the Debt Ceiling Doesn't Concern Me

Have you been hearing the talks about the debt ceiling? About how bad it's going to be if the government actually defaults on their debt come August 2?

Well, that's been the latest topic/argument coming from Washington. We are scheduled to exceed the debt limit that Congress has already raised twice this year, on August 1. Basically, under Obama's leadership and the Democratic Congress that brought us two "bailouts", Obama-care, and the takeover of two auto-makers (GM & Chrysler), we will exceed the limit of 14.3 trillion dollars. What will happen,theoretically, is that the US would not be able to borrow any more money to make the payments on the existing entitlements. (Entitlements are Medicare, Social Security, food stamps, etc.)

A lot of this argument is hyped up to scare Americans. "Oh no! Social Security payments won't go out if they don't raise the debt ceiling!" This is not accurate. The federal government takes in taxes monthly to pay for the Medicare and Social Security. The government will take in enough money to make the minimum payments on the debt.

The real issue is that without raising the debt-ceiling our credit rating will go down, making it more of a risk to loan to the US.

Well, hello. It is a risk to lend to the US. We are spending the money of my children's children's children. We are in debt to like four generations, people. Should we be considered a safe loan? Shouldn't it be more difficult to borrow money for the US?

I love to think about this in terms of a family budget. Let's say Erik has a job and makes $50,000. And our expenses are running about $43,000 a year. So we're saving $7,000 a year. And then, oops, we're having another baby. Our expenses are about to jump to $52,000 a year. But Erik's only bringing in $50,000. What to do? We have two options: 1) Borrow and pay our expenses on credit or 2) reduce the expenditures to within $50,000.

We will quickly go through our savings. And then we'll need to make the hard decisions. So, we decide to use credit. I mean, who wants to say no to themselves? And you know, Erik will probably get a raise this year. So, we can start paying it back.

But then the interest payments start catching up with us. Oh no! Now our expenses have gone up to $58,000 a year. And then, bummer, we can't really pay the interest, so we take out another loan to pay that one. And then another... Now our expenses are out of control. Not to mention that at this point I've enrolled the girls in ballet, tap & jazz, Erik and I both have new cars every two years, and I'm constantly shopping. Those are needs, right?

The bank eventually cuts us off. We are no longer allowed to take any more credit. We are such a credit risk that our credit score has tanked, thereby alerting any other would-be creditors that we probably can't be trusted with credit.

What should we do? Start trimming the expenses. The credit has to be paid. It's all stuff we've already bought. The only way out of that one is bankruptcy (i.e. Greece-this is what's going on over there! Our future if we don't change!). The only real solution is to cut down on all the "entitlements", like cable, dance classes, sell the cars and buy cheaper ones, decide if we really need a home phone and cell phones, etc. It's the responsible way.

I think it's high-time that the government start acting like everyone else in this country. Stop spending. My goodness. JUST.STOP.

And yes, it hurts to cut yourself off from things that you love. But you have to start and keep in mind that financial health goes MILES towards mental peace.

Although the scenario above is hypothetical, I'm not the perfect picture of financial health. But I can recognize an addiction when I see one and the Federal Government is addicted to spending.

The reason the debt ceiling breach doesn't bother me is because it bothers me more that Congress is actually thinking about raising it again. For the third time. This year.

What should bother us is that we apparently need this money to keep paying Social Security and Medicare. We are giving out money that we don't even have. How irresponsible is that?