Teaching Kids Responsiblity: Joel Makes Dinner

 joel and jordan

our dining room, where we have dinner AND homeschool sometimes

Lately Sam has been running All. Day. Long. Since I hold him when he naps, I have to be creative when I plan for dinner. Sometimes it’s something I can make in the morning or at lunchtime and get out of the way. But sometimes it’s something that has to be made later.

So the other night Sam decided to crash around 5 p.m. I had laid out all the dinner stuff on the counter and had even put some brats on a cookie sheet with BBQ sauce on them in the oven. No, I didn’t put the kids in the oven; this isn’t Hansel and Gretel (they were bratwursts, as I’m sure you can figure out). As it got closer to time for Aron to get home I decided instead of throwing Sam over my shoulder to make dinner I would give Joel a little challenge.

I wrote up instructions for the 3 parts of dinner and let him go to town. He had to turn on the oven and set it to a certain temperature. He had to boil some water and cook frozen peas. He had to boil water and margarine and make stuffing. There was measuring involved and checking things.

He did so great! Everything was awesome, and he was proud of himself for doing it. The other kids asked who made dinner since Mommy was on the couch holding the baby, and Joel was able to say that HE DID IT!

Sometimes it’s hard for us parents to give up control over things like cooking or cleaning, but our kids WANT to help out. Besides, how else will they learn how to be on their own if we do everything for them? I’m hoping to raise my kids like my husband was raised … the guy could take care of himself quite well when I met him. In fact, he can cook better than I can and can even sew some.

Now. I gotta go because Eva has decided to wake up at 6:15 for some reason.

Happy Birthday to My Sweet Husband Aron!

Today my husband turns 45!!! He will be cruising around in the red convertible Camaro I rented for him last weekend. Actually, he'll be driving to work in it and parking it. Then he has a meeting to go to and will be parking it. Then he'll run home to say hi to us and will park the Camaro. Then back to work he goes. Don't feel sorry for him, though ... he got to cruise around all weekend in it.

Tonight I'll make him manicotti for dinner with a salad and some bread. The kids will help me make him a strawberry cake with strawberry frosting and real strawberries on it, served with vanilla bean ice cream. Jordan's coming over to hang with the kids so we can run out in the Camaro for some coffee for an hour.

I wish him a happy birthday! This is the 16th birthday I've celebrated with him. He is kind and amazing and great with the kids and puts up with me and that says a lot! I also love that he is not materialistic and that if he got $30,000 handed to him tomorrow he would not buy his own SS Camaro, but he would put that money away for the kids for braces and college and weddings. I love you, babe!

Sam Makes a New Fashion Statement: Preppy Peace

Okay, if this picture looks familiar to you, it's because I just posted it yesterday as part of Aron's Take Your Kids to Work Day ... haha! Now I'm posting it so you might notice the finer nuances of Sam's wardrobe. When the kids wear fatigues and tie-dye, we call that look War and Peace. When Sam wore tie-dye and preppy plaid shorts (bought by Jordan!), we call that Preppy Peace. I am the master of fashion, let me just tell you. Yes me, who would wear black shirts with jeans or shorts every single day. I keep saying I don't dress great because I need to lose weight and get the money to be able to afford vintage Chanel, but who am I kidding ... that's too much work! Thankfully, Callie has some fashion sense. Hopefully I can share some of those pics on here soon!

Oklahoma Earthquake Felt in Kansas City ... Freaky!

Around 11 p.m. last night I felt someone shaking my bed. I figured Eva was just shaking her leg or something, but it was too fast and shaking the bed too much. It felt like a dog was laying at the end of the bed scratching, only we don’t have a dog. Had our friend the possum gotten inside and under our bed and was shaking the bed?

Then Jordan, who was staying the night and sleeping in Joel’s bed, came in mildly flipping out and asking if we’d felt that. She said she thought someone was shaking her bed.

Then the other kids came in flipping out. Callie had been in her own bed and the boys were on the floor for a slumber party. Aron didn’t feel it much because he was sitting on his buns reading.

I didn’t know what was going on. Why was the water in the fish bowl moving? Was in a dinosaur stomping in our neighborhood? The apocalypse? When cars drive by with their bass boomin’, our house shakes, but not really the beds. Besides, that’s a slower rhythm usually.

Aron brought reason and said it was an earthquake. I remembered how Kansas is somehow near a fault line. This is going to be a great homeschool lesson for next week, showing the kids fault lines and talking about tectonic plates. Turns out the earthquake was in Oklahoma and it was felt all the way up to Wisconsin. Freaky!

How do they stand it in California? I don't think our structures in the Midwest are built to withstand earthquakes, just tornados (haha).

Downy Unstopables ... I Think My Nose Fell Off

Okay, my first problem with this product is that I think it needs two P's to be spelled correctly. But after using my free sample, I think it needs like 27 P's because the scent is too freaking strong to be something a human came up with.

My sample said to use the ENTIRE PACKET in one load of laundry. I knew my nose would probably fall off my face if I did that, so I just put in like 1/4 of the packet in a FULL load of laundry. After washing and drying my load, the scent was pretty strong on all my clothes. It hurt my poor wittle sinuses, like my new Glade Plug-In system I paid a buttload of money for.

Maybe I have a sensitive nose, but I can always tell when I'm around someone who has used the ENTIRE packet of their Unstopables. Actually, I can smell them from a mile away.

I don't get why we have to overpower things to make them smell "good." How about drying your clothes on the line outside for a FRESH scent? Okay, not always possible in the winter. But then you can dry them on the line in  your basement for that nice, musty scent.

I'm just sayin': if you have a strong nose, use this product in full strength. But be aware that you are killing the brain cells of everyone around you. It's on your conscience.