Growing Up

The older people in our house are sick again. This is the second time this year and it is only October. Erik came home throwing up after his last class yesterday. Brad has been gracing the toilet since the night before and a little while after I was home my stomach wanted to share with the toilet as well. Thankfully, I had my way and my stomach stayed selfish. (I like coffee, a lot, and I am not sure I could palate it after an episode such as that.) All this gross talk to say you know you are growing up when you still do your chores (at least some of them) when you are sick. Erik gets up from laying on his bed and goes into the kitchen and see the garbage and informs me "I think I better take the garbage and recycles out they are over full." I responded "I have already ask Jeremiah to so you do not need to worry about it." "Thats okay, I can take care of it." Wow, I thought I had a few more years before I could expect anything more than the moaning, whining, and pathetic looks when he was sick. I cannot believe how responsible he is sometimes either that or just does not want anyone taking his precious job away from him. :)

Freezer Meals= Gourmet?

Usually, I do not mind cooking except in the summer when I do just about anything to avoid adding more heat to my house. (This year, I tried to convince my children eating was unnecessary since it is too hot but for some reason they disagreed. :) Now that it is getting cold again I find myself in the kitchen more if only to keep from freezing but I am not a chef or even a good cook. I am not very creative aka I do not cook gourmet by any stretch of the imagination. I just try to get healthy, inexpensive, moderately tasty meals on the table in a timely fashion(aka before my children die of starvation at 5:00). Thankfully my husband and children are troopers who do not complain and are not picky. This lack of creativity is more because I do not feel like I have enough time at the "right" time. I have found out what works for our family is on the days I do not work I make "extra" meals. I usually buy in bulk and cook any where from 3 to 10 meals at a time and freeze them. For example, I will cook up 5lbs of hamburger meat and divide the meat to make spaghetti, some kind of homemade hamburger helper/casserole/ hot dish, sloppy joes, and tacos. I usually put a bunch of vegetables into the meals to make them healthier and to stretch the meat a little. If I do it correctly, each one of these different meals can then be split into 2 more meals. All this, so I do not walk into the kitchen at 5:00 having no idea what to make for dinner. For some reason the dinner hour seems to be extremely stressful since the boys are STARVING, tired, grumpy, etc. at this time and 1 or more of them always seems to NEED me NOW! I find if I have dinner, either defrosting in the fridge or microwave, I can then attend to the random but dire needs of whomever and still get a healthy, moderately tasty, meal on the table in relative ease. This weekend as I was making my freezer dinners I happened to be on the phone with my dad who suggested we share meals. Wait, am I understanding him right? All I had to do was let my dad take my home my extra boring soup to feed to his guys and in return in the next day or two he would give me what he made for his household. Of course we can share meals!! Now you should know something here, my dad should be a gourmet chef so whatever possessed him into thinking up something so grossly unfair to himself is beyond me but by no means am I going to let this enchanting deal pass me by. When I am at his house, I always end up eating more than I should, since there is always something too yummy to pass up! Today this translated into my dull chicken and dumpling soup turning into a yummy pork roast with garlic mashed potatoes! There is no doubt in my mind that I, by far, got the better end of this deal! Thanks Dad!! My only thought now is what is my next dreary meal going to turn into?

6-Year-Old Wisdom

Overheard while the kids were eating cereal for breakfast.

Jeremiah, "Mommy we need to get a cow because of how much milk we go through."

Matthew, "Why?"

Jeremiah, "Do you know what a cow pees out?"

Matthew, "What?"

Jeremiah, "Milk!"

I am now trying to decide if I need to make up a lesson covering this or if we should take a field trip to a farm.

UPDATE!!

Jeremiah does know where the milk on a cow comes from. He was just trying to pull one over on his brother. I think he got me too! :)

4-year-oldism

Matthew last night at dinner, "Mom, this is the BEST dinner I never had!!"

CT Visits!

I think I speak for every Homeschooling mom when I say ARRGH!!! Not only do you feel the need to clean your house from top to bottom but your children need to be fully caught up with school! This does not sound too hard but CT (Certified Teacher) visits always seems to come after the family has been sick or right before or after a family vacation or some other huge event. They never come when you are fully caught up on housework and school work. I type this as I frantically try to finish up my daily lesson plans and fill any gaps in my monthly lesson plan(I lesson plan during summer so I have to make any adjustments that happen along the way). At the same time, I cannot imagine Homeschooling my children on my own anymore. I LOVE our teacher and our school. She is so great about everything. I love how family friendly our school is too! They highly encourage us to bring all of our kids to their events not just the school age children and the some teachers will bring their families too! All that to say even though I might be complaining right now I defiantly prefer having my kids enrolled in a charter school as opposed to doing it on my own! Now it is back to panicking!!

Food

Matthew walks into the room, "Why did nobody make me food?" His hands are on hips and his foot is tapping.

I briefly considered punishing him for his attitude then sent him to go ask his dad so I could burst out laughing.

The Sickies :(

Thankfully the sickies do not hit our house often and even more thankfully I am not the one usually sick. I do have allergies but that does not count as being sick just makes me tired and worn out. This time though I was the one sick so much so that I made Brad turn around from driving to baseball and take me home. Trust me I tried to grin and bear it. Through this I have learned even more how much my children are growing up. Erik has been such a help through it all well, until he started feeling sick. I think there should be some kind rule that if parents get sick then the older kids are not allowed to be sick too. It just leaves no one to keep the house from falling apart. Jeremiah helped out quite a bit as well but remember he is 6. He has grown up so much in so many ways during the last year. It still catches me by surprise. Thankfully we are on the mend.