Another Rant

Doesn't everyone have a love/hate relationship with something in their life?  Maybe it is where you live, your job, exercising or whatever.  I have such a relationship with cooking, only I would characterize it more as a tolerate/hate relationship.  I'm probably an average cook. Most of the recipes I make turn out and are at the very least edible.  However, after 8 years of cooking for kids who basically have to be forced to eat what I've labored to make, and at times prefer to go to bed hungry than eat it, it should come as no surprise that I have developed a low cooking self esteem.  Adam tells me everything is good, but then again he would eat burned toast and tell me it was fabulous so he lost his cooking complement credibility long ago.  Jenna is the ring leader and refuses to try anything.  We've tried every parenting strategy in the book to help her get over her extremely picky eating, but are still battling it out on a daily basis. Frankly I'm tired of making the same lame meals that she will actually eat.  Not only that but I've gotten so paranoid about cooking for other people that whenever people come and stay at our house Adam does most of the cooking while they are here.  I also have anxiety when I'm asked to take a meal to another family and have to tell myself over and over that I'm not a terrible cook and its ok to make food for other people.  I'm in a dinner group with some friends and have been stressing about hosting for over 6 months now.  Yup, it is a classic case of low cooking self esteem.

Ok, so what prompted this latest rant?  We are in the middle of the winter and I've got my usual case of the winter blahs.  Happens every year.  Well, last night I spent a significant amount of time making chicken enchiladas for dinner. In the past the kids liked them, but last night they each had about a TBSP of rice a few green beans and just pushed everything else around their plate.  If I hadn't of spent so much time making them perhaps I wouldn't have gotten upset, but since I wasn't in the mood to make them in the first place I was a little miffed.  Uncharacteristically Adam wasn't at home so after telling the kids they needed to eat a few times and getting only blank stares I got up and texted Adam a simple message, "I'm never cooking again." and then spent the rest of the night in my "Mom office" pouting.  Yeah, I'm really mature sometimes.  Not too long after Adam returned and assessed the situation he had the kids running in and hugging me while thanking me for every meal I've ever made during their lifetime.  It was definitely one of those "I've had it!" moments.  Is it alright to blame it on the winter blahs?

I'm pretty sure I"ll regret writing this when I'm finally in my right mind again.

Wild Horses

I didn't realize it had been so long since I last posted.  My brother and his wife were in town from China for a few weeks so last Sunday we headed to my parents house to have dinner with them along with my sister, Heather, and her family and my cousin, Dustin, and his family.  It was just like the good ol' days of monthly Sunday dinners at my parents' house when we all lived within a few miles of each other.

This week was pretty typical, in a "dead of winter" sort of way.  Britton had scouts, Jenna and Korinne went to gymnastics, I went to a RS dinner group and had physical therapy and a Dr. appt for my leg, and Britton had his weekly piano lesson.  I took Korinne to the Doctor on Friday morning to get her second H1N1 shot and that went over like a lead balloon.  She is the hypochondriac of the family so I wasn't quite sure what to tell her as we headed out the door.  I finally just told her we were going to the Doctor but didn't elaborate.  On the way there I listened to her try and figure out what was going on.  It started out with, "Am I going to the Dentist?"  I told her she wasn't going to the Dentist she was going to the Doctor.  After a few minutes of silence she asked," Is the Dentist the flu shot place, or is the Doctor the flu shot place?"  Busted. The gig was up. She knew what was going on.  It took 3 dum dum suckers to get her through the ordeal and she will still limp occasionally to remind us all that she did indeed get a shot in her thigh.

Adam looked up from his desk on Friday and saw a bunch of horses running around in front of our house.  The neighbor's horses got out and they were clearly very excited to be running free.

We made a phone call to the neighbor who made another phone call to the owners and before too long the horses were back behind the fence.  Wild deer, horses. . .our neighborhood is never a dull place.

Yesterday Adam decided to rearrange things a bit in his office and went into full MacGyver mode.  Korinne, of course, wasn't far behind.

That hats were on backwards and tools were involved.  A good time was had by all.

I Have a Dream. . .

Britton came home from school today with a poster entitled, "I Have a Dream. . ."  He was asked to write about his dreams for himself, for the world, and for his family.  For himself he wrote, "I want to be a Chemist and make medicines for bad diseases." For the world he wrote, "for people to not litter, and that the countries would not be in wars, like Iraq."  And his dream for his family? "That my Mom's leg will feel better (ahhh, how tender), and our house will be cleaner."  WHAT?!  Did he really just say that?!  Yes, he did, and it hung in the hallway for a few days. Wow. That was harsh. With my pride all gone I nonchalantly asked him about it at the dinner table.

"So, uh, Britton, do you think our house is really messy?"
"No, not really"
"I noticed you wrote about how you wish your house could be cleaner and I was wondering if you thought it was really messy all of the time."

By now he was kind of embarrassed.  He explained that he didn't think it was messy he just wished he didn't have to do so many chores around the house. He figured if it was already clean then I wouldn't ask him to clean anything at all.  Once I realized that his dream was all about him NOT having to do chores, instead of lamenting the actual cleanliness of the house I felt a little better.  I'm not perfect, but I do work really hard to keep the house clean and I was feeling kind of moted for a minute there.  I admit that we make the kids do a lot of chores, but it really is for their own good. Believe me when I say it would be a lot easier to just do it all myself. 

Sorry Britton, this is one dream that isn't going to come true.  Perhaps you should just hold out for world peace. 

Got Milk?

I grew up in a family of non-milk drinkers.  Even in a family of 8 people the one gallon of milk we had in the fridge would sometimes go bad before it was used completely.  Milk was needed for 2 things; 1) cereal and 2) as an ingredient in a recipe, that was it.  Adam, on the other hand, grew up in a family of milk lovers.  His family would drink a gallon of milk with their dinner in one night.  Before Adam and I started our family I asked only 2 things of him:

1- That he wouldn't teach our future children to LOVE milk (at that point I still had a hard time watching people drink a glass milk in front of me)
2- That he wouldn't teach our children how to dip toast in hot chocolate and then eat it.  (Eating soggy bread and then finding chunks of soggy bread in your hot chocolate is just wrong on so many levels) 

Here it is 10 years later and I now live in a family of milk lovers and have children who eat hot chocolate and toast practically every morning for breakfast.  Yeah, I lost that battle big time.  I have mellowed with time and have even become an enabler--I have made, with my own hands toast and hot chocolate for the kids knowing full well what is about to take place. 

Why am I sharing this story with you?  Well, last night my little brother Taylor was at our house.  He opened the fridge and saw this:

Having no experience with large quantities of milk in the fridge he promptly asked, "Whoa, is all of this milk for your family or is it for a neighborhood party or something?" Granted we had a few more gallons than usual because both Adam and I got milk at the store this week instead of just one of us.  But after looking at the dates we didn't worry because we will easily be able to use all of the milk before any of it goes bad.  Taylor seemed quite surprised when I said it was just for us.  No party.  While I do not participate in any of this milk drinking madness, the other 4 people in my household can easily put away 6 gallons of milk before any of it gets close to going bad.  Yup, this was one battle I definitely lost.  Fortunately I've made my peace with it and I don't even notice anymore--until one of my siblings comes for a visit, of course. 

The Periodic Table

Friday night I was on the computer checking my e-mail and Britton came in and pensively asked, "Mom, can you help me understand more about the Periodic Table of Elements?"  I, of course, did what I always do in such scenerios, I pretended to know all about it and then deferred to Adam as quickly as possible.  I asked him if it talked about the Periodic Table in one of his big science books and when he said yes we got it out and read over what it said together.  My knowledge peaked by this point so I promptly turned it over to Adam and by the end of the night Adam and Britton had colored charts printed out and hanging on his wall.  I reminded Britton that he probably wouldn't be learning about this stuff until about Jr. High to which he replied, "I know, but it's good to be prepared, right?" Yes. Yes, it is.  I get such a kick out of Britton because I know it's not normal for an 8 yr old boy to be walking around studying the kind of stuff he likes to study.  I just want him to stay like this forever--inquisitive, fascinated, and motivated to learn.  Is that too much to ask?  Probably, but I can hope, can't I?

Our garage is freezing this time of year, but that hasn't stopped Britton from turning it into a little labratory.  It is not uncommon for me to look out in the garage and see Britton playing with his friends at the science table he created. (I just ran out and took a few pictures so you can see what I'm talking about.)

Close by is the "Geology" section of the garage.

On my way to the geology box I couldn't help but notice this booklet on the water storage container:

Ha! He is still writing up football plays in his spare time, I see.  I didn't know he was still doing that.

One of his big science books was close by.

In his spare time he still loves to play sports.  Yesterday was Britton's last Basketball game of the season.  Adam was his coach and they had a great time.  

Gimp

Korinne has a goal this year to learn Spanish.  Her Joy School group is working on goals for the next 3 weeks and it was my assignment to help Korinne come up with a goal she could accomplish in that time frame.  For 3 days I worked to pin Korinne down to a reasonable goal, but each time I emerged from one of our "goal talks" the result was the same, she wanted to learn Spanish.  To demonstrate her uncanny ability to spontaneously learn another language she provided me with a language sampling each time, "Pica, mica, four-o, five-a."  Her genius is even beyond my ability to comprehend.  I thought that if I could come up with a goal for her we would be back in business.  "Korinne, count as high as you can for Mom." I figured I would add 5 or 10 numbers to her highest counting number and wah-lah! A goal would be established.  She started to count using only a bunch of nonsense words--it was in "Spanish", of course.  She is too focused to be deterred easily.

The last couple of days I've been a gimp.

I had surgery to lengthen my IT band in my right leg on Tuesday.  I never did recover from my marathon/Ragnar injury despite physical therapy and everything else.  The reason I decided to go through with the surgery was because even after 3 months of doing all of the "right" things I could still feel my IT band all day and all night--even without any kind of running at all!  Not only is that not normal, it was a serious problem if I ever wanted to do any kind of running again- which I do.  I'm already signed up for a couple of relays this summer. Hopefully it all works out.  If not, it was a very expensive lesson to learn.  That darn running bug! Once you get it, it's hard to get rid of. (I'm sure there are a lot of people who dispute that statement, but since I like to eat chocolate for breakfast consistent exercise is pretty much a must.)  I should be done with crutches in the next couple of days so that is good.

2010

When I was growing up "2010" sounded like the name of a Sci-Fi movie, not something I would actually be writing on the date line of my checks. But here we are in 2010. I'm not much of a new year's resolutions kind of person. I tend to avoid making goals at this time of year because I can't stand the thought of being one of "those" people who go back to their old ways in a matter of weeks. Having said that I will confess that during November and December I have been one of "those" people who eat way too much and gain 5 pounds during the holidays. Guilty as charged and let's be honest, I loved every minute of it. Now, how to reconcile my first statement with my second--no goals, extra 5 pounds. . . .Hmmm, I'll have to think a about that.

This last week we traveled to S.G. to visit Gramma and Grampa C. It was fun to escape the snow for a few days. My kids thought temperatures in the 40's meant there was no need to unpack their coats from the back of the car so that is precisely where they stayed until we got home. I have noticed that I'm the only one in the family who takes wearing coats and jackets seriously. It can be 30 degrees outside and Adam and the kids are running around without coats or jackets. My pleas for them to put on their coats are answered only with confused looks. It's Korinne that puts that look into words, "But I don't need it, Mom." Unfortunately for me just looking at them run around this way makes me cold! Ok, I digress. We arrived in S.G. on Monday night and by midday Tuesday the kids were happily playing with their cousins at Jumpin Jack's indoor playland.

It was big and had several of these huge blow up slides and obstacle courses.

Korinne and cousin Aiden coming down a big slide. They are only 6 months apart and were little buddies at the playground.

Leave it to Korinne to come up with the "get the air out of the red columns and then jump in the hole it creates" plan. Aiden was a willing accomplice.

The next day we headed to a cool animal museum that had a ton of animals who had all been alive at one point, but through the magic of taxidermy still looked very real. Some of the animals were extremely rare and I had never seen anything like them. When we arrived the kids each received their own binoculars so they could see all of the animals up close. They also provided us with black wand type devices that when held to our ears told us all about the animals and where in the world they can be found. It was really interesting and Britton was in heaven. It was definitely his kind of place!

Here are the kids with their cousins.

Korinne with baby Easton.

On Friday we went with Gramma and Grampa and Uncle Steven to the Chuck-a-Rama. I must admit that it was my first Chuck-a-Rama experience, but lately my kids have fallen in love with the buffet thing. I, of course, dutifully did my part and ate way too much. It was only right, being Chuck-a-Rama and all. Then it was off to Pioche for New Year's with Grandma Great. She prepared a grand New Year's feast and when I say feast I really mean it! The food was so good and by this time I had gotten really good at eating so I just kept right on eating Grandma's endless snacks and treats throughout the entire night.

This was our 2nd time in 3 years ringing in the new year in Pioche with Grandma. At 9 p.m. we watched the ball drop live in NYC. We celebrated and then started to get the kids ready for bed. Jenna was the one who called us on it. "But when is it really the new year here in Pioche??" Uh, they didn't ask questions 2 years ago when we did the same thing and it had worked out so well to ring in the new year and still have them in bed by 10 p.m. Jenna was determined to stay up until the real new year, but she didn't make it. She was asleep by about 11.

Here we are with Grandma Great right before we left for home.

We are back at home now and adjusting to the 9:00 a.m. church schedule. No, I'm not a fan. In a perfect world every ward would always have 11:00 church. Just sayin'.