Sink Soup

Tomorrow is payday.

Which means today is the leanest of all days--food wise. No big deal. You know how it is: right before you need to do a big shopping, you just don't seem to have anything that fits right for a decent meal.

That's what I was dealing with tonight. Had a bit of this and a little of that. Seemed to have too much of "yuck," and not enough "yum." I WAS fairly confident, however, that I could pull something together that would pass off as fairly decent. Thankfully, my family has been trained to not be picky. Daddy doesn't allow his little prodigies to turn their noses to Mama's cooking.

Anyhow, I looked around to see what to mix up. For starters, I had chicken stock from some bones I boiled earlier in the week (in anticipation of a day like this). I was stumped as to what I was going to add to that, however. I didn't really have any meat. No significant amount of vegetables. No chicken boullion.

How in the world do you make dinner with none of those things?

In the spirit of Pooh Bear...."Think, think think."

And I seemed to have the things you just couldn't do much with: fish batter mix, peach oatmeal, jerky marinade, protein drink mix. Yuck. A few saltine crackers? Nah.

Welllll.....

Alright. Start with the stock....get it heated up. Then get the small mound of mashed potatoes from a few nights ago and dump it in. If nothing else, the soup would be hearty. Uh....there's a smidgen of leftover broccoli too.....In it goes. A few carrots and half-dead celery can be somewhat salvaged. Needs water. Ooooohhhhh....NOW it needs seasoning...too watered down! Salt, pepper, parsley, garlic.....mmmmm.....not bad...not great.

What ELSE is in this pantry? Hmmmm......cream of chicken soup? Sounds workable. French fried onions....wellll, those are flavorful. A box of stuffing? Uhhhh....why not? It's chicken flavored at least!

I also found a goldmine of leftover chicken patties....3! Man! I can DO something with that!

There was also some leftover chicken gravy. Can someone say, "Flavor?"

So in it all goes, and it's really starting to look and smell like something good. Boiled up some noodles on the side, and Voila! Dinner!

I affectionately called it "Sink Soup." Because it contained everything BUT!

***

Me: "So guys, what do you think of dinner?"

Kidlette: "Uh...it's good! What's, um, IN this?"

Me: "Oh, ya know, a little of this and a little of that."

Kidlette: "Ok, what's it called?"

Me: "Sink Soup!"

All: "Huh??"

Me: "Well, it has everything in it but the kitchen sink! Get it? So I called it "sink soup." ((chuckle))

Kidlette #2: "It doesn't have the counter in it, Mom."

Kidlette #3: "And it doesn't have the faucet!"

Me: ((rolling eyes))

Kidlette #2: "It doesn't have a fork it in!"

Kidlette #1: "Hey! But it DOES have a spoon!!"




Oh, sheesh......what a bunch of clowns we've got around here.......

Weak Moment

Ok, so I have an excuse....I really DO!!!

Uh, I uh, uhhhhh.....

Ok, I'm WEAK. WEAK! I tell my kids ALL the time, "No," "No, we won't get that." "No, I don't have money to buy that." "No, you don't need any candy." And so on and so on and so forth.

And I've said about this before...NO. Probably close to a hundred times.



But I was caught at a weak moment.....

A TERRIBLY weak moment......sigh.

And now I'm stuck.



Arg. I hate it when I'm weak.

They Won't Bring Me Flowers Forever

There used to be a time when I would stress over little things more than I do now. I guess it comes with maturity, because I just don't let the proverbial "small stuff" bother me so much. In fact, I'm much more of a realist than I ever thought I could be. I can see more angles in that "big picture," and just take things one day at a time.

And I can't say that I liked the fact that little mundane things would bother me. I have never liked that about myself, and now that I'm older, I make a conscious effort to be the opposite in certain matters. Just letting things roll off. Taking things in stride. God's helped me in this way, there's no doubt, because it's simply NOT in my personality to be laid back.

And I'm not saying that I never stress out. Now that would be plain impossible. Everybody gets stressed. I'm just saying that I don't get as stressed with things that are not important in the grand scheme of things. It may not even bother me at all, for that matter. But I still get torqued and twisted in a vice from time to time. And yes, it stresses me.

Children seem to be the most common form of stress in life. My children are no exception. Poor things almost never mean it, but they're just not ever going to be adults as long as they're children. Why do we expect them to be? It's so hard as an adult to see things from a child's perspective, to realize that muddy shoes are not the first thing on a child's mind when there's a fresh PBJ on the counter. I think it's just as hard for an adult to see things from a child's point of view as it is for a child to see things from an adult's. It can be such an impasse at times.

Yet I'm working on it. I am trying more and more to put myself in my children's shoes and see things from 2 feet lower. To take out the extra knowledge that 20+ years have afforded me. It doesn't mean that I allow them to act out in normal, destructive, un-called-for behaviors, it just means that I'm meeting them at their level more. Taking in the significance of the situation, seeing it from their eyes, and acting accordingly.

I'm not getting as stressed over nothing. I'm allowing them to be children.

***

This.....



Used to stress me out.

Now, take into consideration what I've already said before you condemn me. I can't help how I'm wired, but I CAN change it, and with God's help I believe I am.

But the kids picking the nice flowers in my yard and bringing them to me ad-infinitum was an annoyance to me in the past. Or even the UGLY flowers....over and over and over again. And to my small defense, I'm not a flower person by nature anyway. I don't particularly care for Chris to bring me home flowers. I'd rather get a nice foot rub or a trip to the bookstore. So to have my kids bring me flowers as soon as they pop up in the spring (winter?) used to get under my skin after a very short time. I would try to be kind about it, because I could tell how infinitely mean it was to ask them to NOT bring me flowers, but I would quell the flower picking pretty quickly.

But it dawned on me this year:

They won't bring me flowers forever.


And then I got sad.

***

How could I keep them from showing me this kindness? It's not like they can take me out for dinner, or do some of the chores that I would rather not do. They can't pay the bills for me, or pick up the groceries.

But they CAN pick a flower. It so simple and so touching at it's very core.

It's not messing up my yard. Or damaging the landscaping. Or not considering others. This is how I USED to think about it, what USED to stress me out. But I've changed my mind.

This is their love to me. Their devotion to me.

I need to enjoy it while it lasts, because some day they won't pick me flowers. They may buy them at the store, but they most likely won't pick them. And someday, my boys will have someone else to pick or buy flowers for. I expect that I will be loved and honored when I'm older and they're adults, but I won't be idolized (if you'll allow the term) and treated as the center of their universe.



Someday I'll miss that.

What's Up......And Some Pics

Bible School will be officially over tomorrow night. We'll be having a closing program at 7 PM, and once that's over, I'll be able to slow down for a little bit.

Chris' birthday was yesterday, and because of Bible School and the fact that we had church last night, we didn't celebrate it yet. He's DYING to find out what I got him, especially since I've been rubbing it in for about 6 months now (hehehehe!), but I won't give it to him until we celebrate his birthday. That'll probably happen next week.

In other news, we are planning on making arrangements to get some fencing this weekend. Make- A-Wish categorically refused to erect a fence as Michaela's wish, so we're going to try to do it for her ourselves. She has absentmindedly walked into the middle of the road twice in the past month when we took our eyes off of her momentarily (we're talking a VERY short time frame here--like 5 minutes? 3? something miniscule like that). Thank God there were no cars coming speeding around the corner. Which reminds me: does anyone know how to get the local government to erect signs that alert oncoming traffic to a handicapped child? I've always thought that would be something good to have. Not that it would keep the drivers from speeding, but maybe it would help them realize the potential problem. Or, at the very least, understand why there is a child wandering in the middle of the street.

That sounds really bad. Like I'm totally irresponsible or something. But it's not me, it's her. She's sneaky; and I am one person. There was even a time when TWO of us were keeping an eye on her, and she escaped out the door of the house and beelined for the road. Scary stuff, I know. We need to invest in some more security for her.

Hence, the fence.

I'm kind of excited about the whole thing. I've wanted one for a good long time. Hopefully it will all go smoothly. We've never put up a fence before....

***

Watching the neighbor bush-hog his field
A sure sign of summer in the country

"Bubba" loves us, this we know
For he always tells us so
Kisses, hugs, and playtime too
Oh, dear Bubba, we love you!

They're just babies....
And I wish I could hold them like this forever.....

Man, am I glad I have a digital camera........................sigh..........................

Day 27: Stinky Shoes To The Rescue!

My sons are fascinated with knives. One of their best friends got a pocketknife (purposely dulled, by the way) for Christmas, and ever since then, Chris and I haven't heard the end of it. Much ado about knives, and when they're going to get one, and why can't they have one, yadda yadda yadda.

So tonight, Caleb says to us in the car, "[Friend] said he's going to make me a knife with his knife."

To which, both Chris and I answered, " Uhhhh, no he's not!"

Caleb: "Just out of a popsicle stick. Just pretend."

Us: "Uhhhh, the answer is still, NO."

Boys in unison: "Why? It's not gonna be reeeeeeal."

Which lead both of us "parental/unfair/meanie" type people to go into a long dissertation on the problems of "fake" (yet, still so wonderfully SHARP) knives, and how they could still get hurt (seeing how they get hurt plenty without the aid of fake knives), and how they're just plain not allowed to own such a dasterdly piece of equipment until they're at least 42.

But me, knowing the importance of these boyish type things, and the goodness of pretend play, felt the need to smooth over the hurt feelings and very-hard-to-suppress bad attitudes my boys were on the verge of displaying. So I told them that they should use something else instead of a real knife. Something to ACT as a knife......pretending and all.

Noah: "Like what? What could we use for a knife that would be fun?"

Me: ((Thinking hard)) "Uhhhhh, you......could........use a............................shoe!"

Chris pretty much lost it.

***

Unfortunately, the little guys just wouldn't drop the issue, and Chris had to lay down the law on them. Caleb got annoyed, but Noah started tearing up. I hate seeing him cry.

So I got out my funny voice.....

And little did they know......

I had SHOES in my purse!

Asher had taken off his very stinky shoes after church, and I collected them before we left. Doing my best Zorro imitation, I proceeded to take out my "knives" and show those boys a thing or two about having some fun!

We had a royal swashbuckling good time out there on the front lawn. Unfortunately, my sons were pitifully unarmed, and I won the match by a long shot.

And my boys learned that shoes make pretty good swords.

And stinky ones are double-edged!

Day 11: Cheese!

Since my Mom and Dad are in town, I decided that I wanted to get pictures taken. Professional pictures. It's been four and a half years since we've had family pictures taken....

...that's BEFORE Libbigail! I have DOUBLE the number of kids now!

Yeah. Pretty pitiful. I know.

I'm not sure why, but the thought of my parents coming just seemed to make me want to get them done. I think I liked the idea of having them in the pictures. I wanted some shots of them with the kids. We also got shots with just the kids, just Chris and I, and my favorite:

Me and my Mom and the girls.

See, 10 years ago, for Mother's Day, Mom and I had our picture taken together. I was pregnant with Michaela at the time, and it was my first official Mother's Day.

So I thought it was neat to get our pictures AGAIN for Mother's Day. This time, with 3 generations. As another gift for Mom.

(And before you get your hopes up, no, I'm not going to post it here. I'm too self-conscience of pictures of myself!)

We got some cute pictures all in all. Here's a couple of the best of them:

The gang with their Grammy and Grandpa

The Kidlettes

And I'll tell ya....you should see the hoops the camera people jumped in order to get the shots to come out! Working with 6 kids, for a total of 10 people is NOT easy. Kudos to Portrait Innovations!

Day 3: Eggin'

Here's a set of pictures I neglected to post back in the "unbloggy" days of April. As you can see, only a couple of my kids got any good camera time! The two oldest boys were in a different area, and really didn't need help like Michaela and Asher did. They all enjoy the thrill of the hunt, though :)