Dr.O' gave up meat for Lent again this year, which makes our meal planning interesting. I am continuing to eat lean poultry, and so are the kids. Dr. O' has agreed to do the special shopping and much of the prep for his dietary committment, which may again become a long-term thing. We made a menu yesterday for the next two weeks, and I'm pretty excited about it!
Black Bean Burgers
Baked Ziti with Ricotta
Portabello Mushroom Sandwich
Minestrone
Cilantro and Hummus Sandwich (much like the Mediterranean Sandwich from Panera)
Lentil Soup
Mdardara
Spanakopita
Pizza
Vegetable Barley Soup
Curry simmer sauce over basmati rice with chickpeas
Falaffel and cucumber sauce
Monday, March 14, 2011
Stupid Steenrod
We've had a severe monkey wrench thrown into our plans for next week: the school system neglected to tell us until FRIDAY that they were cancelling Spring Break, which was supposed to start today. Know what? I don't care. I'm still going to Indiana. I could've had my kids at school every one of those snow days. It's not my fault, and they can't let parents know this so late when people have to make plans! Stupid. I was already annoyed with nearly everything about this school, and it's supposed to be one of the best in the district. Now I'm just ready to be done, but I have my doubts about committing to homeschool next year. It has to be the right choice for everyone in the family.
The big issue with this cancellation is that the school has abdicated its communication responsibility and handed it over to the PTA. If parents don't read the PTA website, they have no idea what's going on. I do read the emails that link to the PTA site, and I am subscribed to their calendar. It's a wealthy attendance area overall, but there have to be some parents who don't have access to the internet all the time. I've been overwhelmed by all the paper announcements from the PTA, newsletters from the teachers, graded work, homework, and random enrichment junk they send home. They could do a much better job putting all the information into one newsletter weekly from the school itself, plus one classroom newsletter from the teacher, both of which could be accessed online as well. The PTA crap could remain on the website, but their role should be scaled back because they're just wasting paper. Homework could be put straight into the folder, in the same pocket every time, and graded work/keep at home stuff could be in a manila envelope so that we don't have to fish through all this crap to find the important information.
The big issue with this cancellation is that the school has abdicated its communication responsibility and handed it over to the PTA. If parents don't read the PTA website, they have no idea what's going on. I do read the emails that link to the PTA site, and I am subscribed to their calendar. It's a wealthy attendance area overall, but there have to be some parents who don't have access to the internet all the time. I've been overwhelmed by all the paper announcements from the PTA, newsletters from the teachers, graded work, homework, and random enrichment junk they send home. They could do a much better job putting all the information into one newsletter weekly from the school itself, plus one classroom newsletter from the teacher, both of which could be accessed online as well. The PTA crap could remain on the website, but their role should be scaled back because they're just wasting paper. Homework could be put straight into the folder, in the same pocket every time, and graded work/keep at home stuff could be in a manila envelope so that we don't have to fish through all this crap to find the important information.
Whirlwind Party Weekend
We are pretty wiped out after a great weekend! We spent the night in a hotel in State College PA on Friday night. The kids swam with their cousins and stayed up until 11:30 eating pizza and giggling. We crashed hard for the night and enjoyed the hotel breakfast in the morning with the O' grandparents. We got to Dr.O's brother's (another near-Dr.O') PSU apartment around 11 and began a group effort of preparing lunch and wrangling the 6 kids. The community center at PSU's grad housing has no real kitchen, so we prepped each dish and took it over to the community center, where Pop-pop was watching the kids. We had a ridiculous amount of food and barely made a dent in it, but if everyone we have for Christmas been there, we wouldn't have had enough!
We celebrated 5 birthdays in one shot and enjoyed a cake that was made to taste like a Tasty-Kake Candy Kake (it's an East Coast thing, like Carvel-- two things I'd never heard of until I spent time in the Mid-Atlantic area). My MIL replaced the peanut butter filling with a butterscotch filling because one nephew has serious allergies, and the cake was amazing! Like a heart-shaped pound cake with creamy butterscotch caramel and coated in solid chocolate. Yum! We enjoyed chatting and playing with the kids, and BIL set off some rockets with the kids, an activity that my FIL used to do with his kids.
At 5 we had the community center cleaned up, and it was time to head home since we and my in-laws all had church responsibilities for the next day. With a stop or 2, it takes us a little under 4 hours to get home. The Jedis were thrilled to have a great box of Indiana Jones Legos to open thanks to my cousin Kim! We got them ready for bed and sent them upstairs for the night. Despite her long sleep in the car, M-girl demanded to be put to bed immediately, too. She had a lot of sleep to catch up on because she doesn't want to miss a minute of playtime with her cousins when we're with them.
We celebrated 5 birthdays in one shot and enjoyed a cake that was made to taste like a Tasty-Kake Candy Kake (it's an East Coast thing, like Carvel-- two things I'd never heard of until I spent time in the Mid-Atlantic area). My MIL replaced the peanut butter filling with a butterscotch filling because one nephew has serious allergies, and the cake was amazing! Like a heart-shaped pound cake with creamy butterscotch caramel and coated in solid chocolate. Yum! We enjoyed chatting and playing with the kids, and BIL set off some rockets with the kids, an activity that my FIL used to do with his kids.
At 5 we had the community center cleaned up, and it was time to head home since we and my in-laws all had church responsibilities for the next day. With a stop or 2, it takes us a little under 4 hours to get home. The Jedis were thrilled to have a great box of Indiana Jones Legos to open thanks to my cousin Kim! We got them ready for bed and sent them upstairs for the night. Despite her long sleep in the car, M-girl demanded to be put to bed immediately, too. She had a lot of sleep to catch up on because she doesn't want to miss a minute of playtime with her cousins when we're with them.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Typical Miscellany & Minor Matters
So the home computer is interminably slow this afternoon, and I am thumb-typing this on the iPod touch Dan gave me for my birthday. This is quite challenging, especially as I try to get my thoughts down quickly before they disappear. (note: I gave this up after a few paragraphs and restarted the laptop, which M-girl had apparently been playing with).
My birthday and M-girl's were both this week, in addition to Dr. O's spring break and Ash Wednesday. We took the kids to the Shrove Tuesday pancake dinner and brought a king cake that I made using dough from allrecipes.com's Clone of a Cinnabon recipe, and it turned out great!
We are heading to PA for a quick overnight trip tomorrow to celebrate a number of family birthdays on Dr. O's side, and it will be a great visit with cousins! Next week the kids and I will go to Indiana to visit with some friends and family as well. The kids are especially excited about going to "Chunky Jesus", which is kinda sacrilegious but is how Aidan pronounced "Chuck E. Cheese's" for a very long time.
So today is Weekly Home Blessing, which is Flylady.net speak for 7 10-minute chores to maintain a home's basic cleanliness. I typically do mine on Thursday in preparation for the weekend and occasionally on Mondays to dig us out of the mess created by our weekend revelries. The chores are to get rid of surface clutter (I put mine in bags as I go and then put the stuff where it belongs at the end), change sheets, empty all trash, polish the worst windows and mirrors, dust, vacuum, and mop. I've been doing it for over a year, and it has made a huge difference here. The daily stuff includes wiping down sinks and toilets, making beds, and anything else that gets gross regularly enough to warrant daily attention. I like a streamlined plan that reminds me to do the important stuff on a schedule so that I'm not wandering around not sure what to do. I can't adhere to it strictly because I have small children and a dog, so a perfect house is a lost cause.
It's been pretty darn glamorous around here. After my hot date to Olive Garden yesterday where I ate entirely too much smoked mozzarella fonduta (totally worth it!) I came home and tried to get M-girl down for a nap and to get laundry caught up. I utterly failed at both attempts, but I managed to put her down again just before Dr. O brought the Jedis home. Then he caught us up on laundry with tremendous dedication and energy, plus guiding kids through homework, doing the dishes, and making some excellent Spicy Black Bean Burgers.
We managed to get the kids through a somber Ash Wednesday service, although I had to "tomato stake" A-man. For those of you unfamiliar with this term in a child-rearing context, it means to keep the child very close to the parent, often with constant physical touch, in order to monitor behavior and prevent anything really ugly from happening. I had to do more of that than usual with A-man last night! He was in rare form, and I decided to immediately "tomato stake" that kid by holding his 5-year-old lanky body very closely to me, rocking him on my lap and stroking his head. I carried him when we went forward for the imposition of ashes. I intertwined my arm with his during Communion. And it mostly worked. No big meltdowns at church, although he did quietly sob for a minute or two. He was overtired, as were his siblings. And so were his parents, to tell the truth.
My recent attempt to tweak the bedtime and morning routines has been very effective, except for last night when I fell asleep before I could go upstairs to sit with them. There was some naughtiness afoot, and both have lost their screentime until they help me get the upstairs bedrooms clean enough to be ready for vacuuming and get the big basket of kid laundry put away. They do this a lot right before Weekly Home Blessing, and I'm secretly happy to have screentime to hold over their heads until they are helpful and have good attitudes. Good opportunity to teach them hard work and self-control!
So today's tasks have involved lots of wiping surfaces, decluttering, and well, shaving the dog. She was overdue for a trim, and I thought she had fleas. I washed all her bedding today, shaved her, and bathed her so that I could put her flea prevention/killer on. I want it to be on her while we're gone so that there's less opportunity for the kids to come in contact with the medication. She apparently doesn't have any fleas yet, but the season is upon us anyway. I also tried to give her her heartworm and other medicine ground into a powder and then mixed with gravy. No dice. She would not eat it for anything! For a dumb dog, she can be surprisingly astute about my trying to hide meds. Finally, I put some broth in the dish and crushed up some crackers into it. People food did the trick. She's at my feet right now, but after the drugging, shaving, and bathing stunt I pulled today, it'll be a while before she trusts me!
M-girl's stunt of the week is to destroy her room during nap time. Her other defense/means of protest regarding naps is to wait until that time to poop in her diaper. Both are quite effective at keeping her awake and occupied during a nap time that both of us need very much. She's never been able to go to sleep with anyone else in the room, even from shortly after her birth, so sitting in the room until she drifts off isn't an option like it is for the Jedis. The difficulties are that she can get out of bed and explore her room now (which is a good thing from a development standpoint), and she is getting to an age at which many children do start to give up naps. However, she does not sleep enough night-time hours to make up for giving up a nap, and more night-time sleep could be difficult with the rest of the house up and about in the morning. If I let her up after a long time spent destroying her room, she's overly tired and ready to destroy other rooms in frustration. This typically happens closer to the time I need to go a few blocks away and pick up the Jedis from their bus stop. M-girl thinks: "Checkmate, Momma!"
Yes, I am posting this to Facebook, but I don't have to get onto the site to share my blog posts. I know a few people who have O'H-kid withdrawal, so here's a fix!
My birthday and M-girl's were both this week, in addition to Dr. O's spring break and Ash Wednesday. We took the kids to the Shrove Tuesday pancake dinner and brought a king cake that I made using dough from allrecipes.com's Clone of a Cinnabon recipe, and it turned out great!
We are heading to PA for a quick overnight trip tomorrow to celebrate a number of family birthdays on Dr. O's side, and it will be a great visit with cousins! Next week the kids and I will go to Indiana to visit with some friends and family as well. The kids are especially excited about going to "Chunky Jesus", which is kinda sacrilegious but is how Aidan pronounced "Chuck E. Cheese's" for a very long time.
So today is Weekly Home Blessing, which is Flylady.net speak for 7 10-minute chores to maintain a home's basic cleanliness. I typically do mine on Thursday in preparation for the weekend and occasionally on Mondays to dig us out of the mess created by our weekend revelries. The chores are to get rid of surface clutter (I put mine in bags as I go and then put the stuff where it belongs at the end), change sheets, empty all trash, polish the worst windows and mirrors, dust, vacuum, and mop. I've been doing it for over a year, and it has made a huge difference here. The daily stuff includes wiping down sinks and toilets, making beds, and anything else that gets gross regularly enough to warrant daily attention. I like a streamlined plan that reminds me to do the important stuff on a schedule so that I'm not wandering around not sure what to do. I can't adhere to it strictly because I have small children and a dog, so a perfect house is a lost cause.
It's been pretty darn glamorous around here. After my hot date to Olive Garden yesterday where I ate entirely too much smoked mozzarella fonduta (totally worth it!) I came home and tried to get M-girl down for a nap and to get laundry caught up. I utterly failed at both attempts, but I managed to put her down again just before Dr. O brought the Jedis home. Then he caught us up on laundry with tremendous dedication and energy, plus guiding kids through homework, doing the dishes, and making some excellent Spicy Black Bean Burgers.
We managed to get the kids through a somber Ash Wednesday service, although I had to "tomato stake" A-man. For those of you unfamiliar with this term in a child-rearing context, it means to keep the child very close to the parent, often with constant physical touch, in order to monitor behavior and prevent anything really ugly from happening. I had to do more of that than usual with A-man last night! He was in rare form, and I decided to immediately "tomato stake" that kid by holding his 5-year-old lanky body very closely to me, rocking him on my lap and stroking his head. I carried him when we went forward for the imposition of ashes. I intertwined my arm with his during Communion. And it mostly worked. No big meltdowns at church, although he did quietly sob for a minute or two. He was overtired, as were his siblings. And so were his parents, to tell the truth.
My recent attempt to tweak the bedtime and morning routines has been very effective, except for last night when I fell asleep before I could go upstairs to sit with them. There was some naughtiness afoot, and both have lost their screentime until they help me get the upstairs bedrooms clean enough to be ready for vacuuming and get the big basket of kid laundry put away. They do this a lot right before Weekly Home Blessing, and I'm secretly happy to have screentime to hold over their heads until they are helpful and have good attitudes. Good opportunity to teach them hard work and self-control!
So today's tasks have involved lots of wiping surfaces, decluttering, and well, shaving the dog. She was overdue for a trim, and I thought she had fleas. I washed all her bedding today, shaved her, and bathed her so that I could put her flea prevention/killer on. I want it to be on her while we're gone so that there's less opportunity for the kids to come in contact with the medication. She apparently doesn't have any fleas yet, but the season is upon us anyway. I also tried to give her her heartworm and other medicine ground into a powder and then mixed with gravy. No dice. She would not eat it for anything! For a dumb dog, she can be surprisingly astute about my trying to hide meds. Finally, I put some broth in the dish and crushed up some crackers into it. People food did the trick. She's at my feet right now, but after the drugging, shaving, and bathing stunt I pulled today, it'll be a while before she trusts me!
M-girl's stunt of the week is to destroy her room during nap time. Her other defense/means of protest regarding naps is to wait until that time to poop in her diaper. Both are quite effective at keeping her awake and occupied during a nap time that both of us need very much. She's never been able to go to sleep with anyone else in the room, even from shortly after her birth, so sitting in the room until she drifts off isn't an option like it is for the Jedis. The difficulties are that she can get out of bed and explore her room now (which is a good thing from a development standpoint), and she is getting to an age at which many children do start to give up naps. However, she does not sleep enough night-time hours to make up for giving up a nap, and more night-time sleep could be difficult with the rest of the house up and about in the morning. If I let her up after a long time spent destroying her room, she's overly tired and ready to destroy other rooms in frustration. This typically happens closer to the time I need to go a few blocks away and pick up the Jedis from their bus stop. M-girl thinks: "Checkmate, Momma!"
Yes, I am posting this to Facebook, but I don't have to get onto the site to share my blog posts. I know a few people who have O'H-kid withdrawal, so here's a fix!
Friday, March 4, 2011
Lenten Facebook Detox
I finally bit the bullet and made my announcement about taking a break from Facebook yesterday. I've been meaning to do it since New Year's, but I'm glad I didn't because January and February are often hard for me, and I needed the therapeutic effect of chatting back and forth with my mom friends all over the world. I'm giving it up for Lent because I do need to give it up for a while as it has changed from being a way to keep in contact with friends and family after the move to a pretty serious distraction in my life. I chose Lent because I figured 40 days would be enough time to detox and because I'll be more motivated to keep my heart focused on prayer and preparation for Easter if Facebook is not an option. My FB account doesn't do quite what I want it to do, and I've had some problems with privacy/hacking from time to time. Also, there are Facebook friends who I'd probably be able to delete with no hard feelings, or they could delete me and it would be no big deal at all. However, pruning the list is harder than starting afresh. I'm also planning to use some of the extra time researching homeschooling and trying to decide whether it's a doable option. I plan to either do that or try to finish my MA starting in the fall. I need to do something!
Thursday, March 3, 2011
What "one more thing" can I do?
I've been getting pretty worn out these days. The winter is finally coming to an end, and some changes are in the air. The Jedis and Dog & Toddler Show are extra busy and extra needy. I've been getting about 6 hours of sleep each night for no good reason.
The other night I felt like checking out early for the night. I rested a little after dinner while M-girl watched Caillou on the bed with me, and Dr. O' did homework with the Jedis. He got the kids ready for bed, and I thought "tomorrow WILL go better if I get up and do a few small things". I got out of bed and spent 5 minutes starting a batch of yogurt, 5 minutes starting the bread machine with a nice loaf of honey whole wheat, and 5 minutes starting a hot wash of a load of diapers. I entrusted Dr. O with making sure the diapers got dried on low, and he did it. It turned out that I had kind of a bad night, and I was really thankful to have yogurt, bread, and a load of fresh and clean diapers for M-girl.
We never know what kind of day the next day will be, but we can make it better by being prepared, you know? I try throughout the day to think what "one more thing" I can do to make the next period of time better. There's always something on the list! I can't do everything every day, but I can work to discipline my heart to be aware of our collective needs. I can train my kids in self-discipline so that they don't have to feel stressed and worried when they can't find something they're looking for.
My "one more thing" is enormous right now! Time to fold and put away Mt. Laundry before it avalanches on someone!
Dynamic parenting
I am the momma of kids who like routine. I like routine, too! The challenge is setting up routines and rules that fit with our family's priorities and are appropriate for the children's development. What I love is that as the parent, I can change the routine when it's not working. I don't have to do what any other family is doing or what any book suggests, but I can if I want to! There's tremendous freedom in being in touch with what my family needs and in adapting my parenting to suit our current phase.
The Jedis have a habit of staying up in their room and reading or playing until they finally conk out. It's awful, but we've had trouble figuring out what else to do without resorting to harsh punishment. The best solution is to stay in their room until they fall asleep, which cuts into our couple time. However, it makes a tremendous difference to A-man to have momma cuddle him in bed at night. I-M is the major culprit in the late-night partying, and A-man would gladly fall asleep sooner, I think. We've known this was the best solution, but it takes discipline to go up and do this every night. Now I'm falling asleep beside my A-man and getting up around 9:30 or 10 and moving to my bed. I take my iPod so that I have something to listen to while the boys settle down, and I really enjoy that time with them! I need to work some Bible stories into that routine as well.
The major benefit of this enforced bedtime is that the boys wake on their own around 6:45. I help them dress, and they quickly eat breakfast. Previously, we had to wake them and dress them while they woke up, and they gave us a hard time about choosing what breakfast to eat, and they dawdled through breakfast time.
Their reward for going to sleep earlier and for getting up cheerfully on school days is that they have about 30 minutes to play in their rooms. Any time they spend fussing comes out of their playtime instead of my time getting them out the door. I give them warnings as it gets closer to time to leave, and they can lose the next day's playtime if they are not obedient when it's time to go.
I like that my children can see that if a routine or rule isn't working, we can work together to change it. I love that they are learning about responsibility for their own morning routine. I especially love that the chaos can be tamed with a few little changes!
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