Attention All Moms...and Dads, too

If you have not tried this, you must.

Two parts corn starch to one part water.  Mix.  And let the weird ooey-gooeyness begin!

It is a crumbly-like substance.

But, wait!  Now it is a drippy liquid.

And, even though it looks like a huge mess (which some how makes it seem more fun) when it dries, it just sweep right up.

Easy-peasy and hours of fun!

Three Alarm Dinner

It's 4:30.  Do you know what your family is having for dinner?  Roast chicken?  No, still frozen solid in the back of the freezer.  Carnitas?  No, that should have gone in the crock pot six hours ago.  Frozen lasagna?  That takes two hours to cook and you only have one.  Tortilla soup?  Don't have all the ingredients.

This happens to me all the time.  I have served peanut butter and jelly, cereal, and frozen waffles for dinner.  (Not all at once.  I'm not that crazy.)  This is unacceptable, really.  I have three growing kids, and a husband who works hard all day to put food on the table.  Well, he works for the food, and the table.  Putting one on top of the other is supposed to be my job.

So, I invented the three alarm dinner.  I set an alarm to keep me on track.  Three of them actually.  I use my iPod Touch, but any phone or alarm clock will do.

10:00am     Lovely church bells ring, usually from my back pocket.  When I pull out my iPod, it gently asks me, "What's for Dinner?"  This may be a little late in the day for some of you, but any earlier and I would be too busy to hear it ring.  I stop, and make myself answer.  I look in a few cupboards.  I take something out of the freezer.  If I can fit in a quick trip to the market, I do.  Even if I have all the meals for the week scheduled (which I do about every fifth week) I need to be reminded, in case some early prep work needs to be done.  Like loading up the crock pot.

2:00pm     More lovely church bells, just checking in.  "Do you need to prep dinner?"  This comes in handy if I am baking, or roasting, something that is going to take awhile.  I chose two o'clock, because it takes three hours to make bread in my bread machine and dinner is between 5:30 and 6.

4:30pm     Chimes again.  "Make dinner."  Okay, it may say, "Make dinner, Stupid!" but the love hate, perhaps abusive, relationship I have with my iPod is a topic for another post.  This alarm has a snooze button.  Sometimes I don't need to start cooking that early, but I need to be kept aware of the time.

This  might sound nuts.  But it works!  Only once since implementation of the Three Alarm Dinner plan have my children eaten frozen burritos for dinner.  And that was just because I was making steak and there wasn't enough to go around.

There is a fourth alarm.  This is more of a WAH-WAH-WAH-WAH alarm, like you hear if there is a nuclear meltdown or you don't push the button every 108 minutes.  It rings at 5:30, and gives me the number to the nearest pizza place.

So, what is for dinner?

Are You Queen of Your Cart?

When I take my kids to the market with me, I always get them a treat, or snack, of some kind.  It makes my life easier.

Our local supermarket gives away free cookies.  I am not thrilled about giving my children sweets at ten o'clock in the morning, but the cookies are small, and the price is right.

Trader Joe sells bananas by the piece (19 cents) and not by the pound, so each child gets a banana.

Target is where they get me.  Target has goldfish crackers in individual sized boxes, prominently displayed at the entrance to the store.  They are a dollar.  This does not seem like a lot, but each trip to Target requires a two to three dollar investment in goldfish crackers.  I call this the Target Tax.  Yes, this is corporate evil at work, but it could be worse.  Until recently, if you wanted these perfect child sized treats, the only place in the entire store you could get them was an end rack in the toy department.  Now, that was evil. 

There are several schools of thought on when and if it is appropriate to give your children snacks while shopping.  Today, I will be discussing three of them.

First, there are parents who never give their children anything while in any store.  This keeps snacking within prescribed snack times and teaches children not to ask for things in the store.   (This also happens to be the method most favored by people who have not actually had children yet, because it sounds so reasonable and responsible.)

Well, I say, "Congratulations!" to those parents.  I wish them well.  I, however, do not wear my underpants that tight.  Nor, am I a bionic NO-machine.  If I tried this, my children would beg, then whine, then cry.  Then win.  I would give them a treat, just so that they would leave me alone along enough to find the right brand of toothpaste.  (And why has that become so complicated?)  Thereby rewarding bad behavior.  Besides, my kids eat like every two hours.  They are most likely, legitimately hungry.

There are other parents who give treats at the end of the shopping trip as a reward for good behavior while in the store.  This may work with older children.  But it is my experience, that children under the age of five, especially boys, have no concept  of "later."  To small children, there in NOW and NOT NOW.

Let me illustrate.  Mother says, "Johnny, if you are good in the store while I am shopping, I will give you a treat when we check out".  Johnny hears, "If you are good NOW, I will give you a treat NOT NOW."  Hardly motivational from little Johnny's perspective, when he could run up and down the isles NOW.  Besides, this method also requires a whole lot of reminding and threatening.  Who wants to be doing that the whole trip?

The third method, and the one I prefer, was suggested to me by my mother-in-law. (Thank you, Grandma Christine!)  I give my kids their treat right away.  I get to be in charge of what the treat will be.  There is never a battle of wills for me to lose.  And, they are so busy eating, they don't bug me.  It's not perfect.  And I still must shop quickly.  But, I remain Queen of the Shopping Cart.

All Hail!!!

Give Us This Day, Our Daily Cup

Have you ever found a sipee cup under the couch?  Or the driver's seat of your car?  Have you ever thought to yourself, "Hmmm.  I think this is the cup of juice I gave the kid five minutes ago"?  But you weren't really sure.  A quick sniff and visual inspection revealed no fermentation, coagulation, or growth of any kind, so back in the kids mouth it went?

No?  Well, you are a better mother than I am.  The truth is, I have three kids wandering around with cups.  There is only so much I can keep a lid on.  Ha ha.  Keep a lid on.  Get it?

That was until the great cup epiphany of ought seven.  Label cups with name and date.  Never again will Jonah drink out of Sam's cup from two weeks ago.  Well, I can't promise never, but at least I won't hand it to him and say, "Here, drink this."