Adventures in cooking

I sure enjoy my sweet little kids, but for some reason, everyday just before dinner time they all seem to get grumpy at the same time. On any given day you could show up to my door at 5 o’clock and find me in the kitchen working on dinner with an angry fussing baby in my arms and two kids running through the house screaming while trying to destroy it and each other. It really is a given, that no matter how sweet everyone has been all day, at 5 o’clock, the peace and happiness in our home is replaced with chaos.
As part of my calling in compassionate service I make and deliver a lot of dinners. Most people like their dinner to be delivered between 5 and 6 and you can only imagine how well preparing and packing up the dinner and the children goes at that wonderful time of day. I typically end up with some kind of burn and a car full of crying children. There have been a few dinners I have been a bit embarrassed to present to people. It’s one thing when you present your husband with over cooked food and an apology and he chokes it down and tells you its fine and even asks for seconds to make you feel better. Its another when you know you have tuned a roast into jerky and there is no time to make something new and you have to present it to people who have no idea that you had to prepare the whole meal with one hand while the other one is devoted to coddling a sad baby and rescuing a hysterical two year old who’s brother keeps locking her in various rooms and leaving her in the dark. I know the service is supposed to make me feel love and other warm fuzzies, but it mostly make makes me feel crazy. Ha Ha

The only thing that is more fun then preparing dinners to take to other people is when we have people over for dinner at our home. Preparing an edible dinner and a clean house at the same time is a whole other situation. Ellie can turn a clean house into a disaster in less then ten unattended minutes. So imagine the house is clean and I take the time to make a salad. I look up to see the couch cushions have all been removed and the couch is covered with hello kitty stickers. On one special occasion; Hudson decided to be a big help in my dinner preparations.

Jake had invited a good friend from school over for dinner. I was determined to have everything ready and not be in a frazzled state when they walked in the door ready to eat after class. I had brined a chicken in preparation for roasting and had pulled it out of the fridge and set it in the sick while I got the pan all ready. Autumn was napping and the kids were happily painting at the table so I turned my attention to some potatoes that were simmering on the stove. When I turned back to my chicken I found it was now GREEN. Hudson had poured his glass full of paint water all over the chicken. I showed Hudson his mistake and felt very good about myself for not losing my temper as I started on the task of scrubbing as much green off the chicken as I possibly could. I really hoped that the roasting would hide any discoloration that was left. As I put it in the oven I noticed the potatoes were done. I dumped them into the strainer in the sink just as I heard a loud “UHH OHH”. I looked over to see Ellie and our carpeted dinning room floor covered in paint and water. I let out a sigh and picked up my little girl and took her to the bathroom to clean her up. As I scrubbed the carpet I looked up at the clock and was so pleased with myself for not only having plenty of time to let the carpet dry but also, once again, I hadn’t let myself get too angry with the kids. Returning to the potatoes that were waiting for me in the sink I froze and stared at them in disgust. What should have been white was now a greenish grey color similar to the shade of Ellie’s eyes. Hudson had decided to “help” clean up all the remaining paining stuff by pouring it into the sink where my potatoes were straining. I angrily threw them into the trash and promptly yelled at Hudson and Ellie and sent them to time out for eternity. Fortunately they stayed out of sight long enough for me to prepare more potatoes and calm don a little. A little later when I rolled out some dough to make rolls; I found that although I had wiped off the table thoroughly, they still managed to pick up a little bit of green paint themselves. At this point all I could do was laugh and throw them on a pan and into the oven. Hopefully no one would notice. As we sat eating the meal that night I couldn’t help but smile as I thought about all the disasters that had happened to the food everyone was enjoying. I guess painting is not a good distraction to use on the kids when I need to get some cooking done. Lesson learned!



Remember that sweet little baby who loved to be held all the time?  Someone switched her with this this thing. This one is still pretty cute, but she thinks she doesn't want to be cuddled anymore. She loves to lay on  this pad and kick and grab all the toys. I can just hear  her tell me she needs her own space sometimes.




This is what happens when a group of kids beg me to make them a pinata and I only had what was lying around the house.  It might not have been very pretty, but the kids sure thought it was fun and it was a good way to use left over Christmas candy.