Sarah says: Generally, a bottle labeled "Red Wine with Spices Added" would have me running for the hills. It's usually the spice that turns me away from certain red wines. I've seen this wine on the shelves the past few Octobers, but haven't felt confident enough to try it. Until this year, a friend told me I HAD to give it a try. It doesn't take much to pull me into peer pressure, so I gave it and tried it.
It wasn't bad, I wouldn't go out of my way for it, but it wasn't bad. The smell was delicious! Although, I don't recommend breathing it in while trying to drink it, it will sting a little (don't ask how I know that). The taste was drinkable. Not nearly as spicy as I had feared, but it still had a pretty strong red wine taste. I did some google'ing and someone suggested adding a 1/2 gallon of apple cider, that sounds awesome. I would think that cider would cancel out some of the strongness of this drink, and just make it a delicious sweetness. Maybe I will have to buy another bottle to give that a go.
The biggest downfall of this drink was the prep time. I'm a fan of popping the cork, pouring the glass, and getting down to the relaxing as quickly as possible. This took work! First there was the heating up, which I debated back and forth between the stove and microwave, but ended up on the stove. If I tried the apple cider mix mentioned above, I would probably heat it in a crock-pot for a while. Then there was the dilemma of how to get it from the pot, into the mug, without making a huge mess. Then there was the fear of taking the first sip because you don't want to burn your mouth.... very stressful. All that stress is probably worth it though, this drink cold would probably be awful, heating it up is the way to go.
Overall rating: Thumbs 3/4 way up, despite my complaints, we drank the whole bottle. Couldn't have been that bad!
Speaking of friends and peer pressure...
A friend of mine, and a mother of a 3 month old baby boy (along with 3 other kiddos!) recently posted on Facebook that little man wasn't sleeping very good at night and she was desperate for a full night of sleep. She asked if anyone would be interested in watching little man for the night. My first thought "Me, me, me!!! Pick me!!! Please pick me!!" But, then I saw the line of comments and sadly assumed I was too late. As I read through the comments, I discovered people giving her all sorts of advice. Feed him more, give him cereal, etc, etc. I felt like people were pressuring her to feed him, almost looking down on her for not doing it already. I scrolled back up to the original post and re-read, I must have misunderstood the question. Nope, she was clearly asking for someone to watch the little guy for a night, and all she was receiving was a ton load of unsolicited advice. What the what? I'm of the opinion that when a mom asks for help, we give her the help that she's requesting!
For some crazy reason, there seems to be a lot of mom competition. My baby can almost sit up, well mine already can! My baby walked at 12 months, well MY baby walked at 11.5 months. My baby starting saying Dada! Yeah, mine says MAMA! It doesn't stop after the baby years, can your kid ride a bike yet without training wheels? or swim without water wings? Or count.. by 5's... to 1,000?! And if you say your kid can't do something yet, man oh man watch out, people will tell you exactly how to fix that. STOP, people please, stop giving out unsolicited advice. If someone asks for an opinion on how to get something done, fine, offer up your thoughts. But otherwise, keep it to yourself!
Do I think my friend should be giving her 3 month baby cereal? It doesn't frickin matter! What matters is, she was flat out exhausted and was asking for someone to watch the baby for the night. So I txt'ed her, and after a series of back and forth, I happily reported to Jon that little man would be spending the night with us! He was dumbfounded. First of all, he didn't understand why I'd be willing to give up a night of sleep for a baby, when we are clearly out of that baby stage. Refer to the paragraph above sweetie, as a mom, when a fellow mom asks for help, I help. Additionally, since there is all this crazy competition, mom's often feel that we are supposed to handle it all, and asking for help is a sign of weakness. All the more reason to help!! Second of all, he said something along the lines of "but, you barely see her anymore". True, I haven't seen this friend in awhile, maybe a year or so. Not because we don't want to, we're both just really busy. But she's "that friend", the one that you can go a year without seeing, but when you do see her, you just pick right up where you left off. Plus there's the fact that not seeing each other for awhile didn't stop me from offering to let a child that is basically unknown to me spend the night, and it didn't stop her from bringing him over, so I'd say we're still ok.
So, I got to spend the night staring at this little guy, and my friend got the night of sleep she deserved. She showed up the next day looking a little less cloudy.
I'm proud of her for sticking to her guns. She feels one way about when and how to feed a baby. I respect her opinion and am not about to try to change that. Not only do I respect a mother's intuition, of all the people on Facebook, the mom herself really knows her baby best and will make the right decision for her little guy when it's time. But also, she's a mom of 4.... pretty sure she knows what's she's doing! She doesn't get caught up in that competition crap. She recognized she needed help, she asked for it, and she took it when it was offered. Good for you. Little man is a lucky guy.
Next time you're about to offer up some advice, ask yourself if that advice is really being requested. Or if something else is needed all together. Then go drink some wine and reflect on your good deeds!
