On our way up to Portland, we stopped for a few days in Sacramento to break up the drive and visit my family. We stayed at my grandma’s house, which is right next door to my parents house. The other day I was in a bit of a munchy mood, so I decided to go through my grandma’s cupboards and find something to make that I could munch on. Boy, did I find some winners! This Jell-o mix was the oldest thing I could find. I don’t know when it expired, but I do know that it was bought in September of 1989.
I didn’t want to eat it. I just wanted to see if it would still work. And it did. I was really excited to use this old blender as well.
The directions called for the mix to be blended on low for a minute and then on high for another minute. Needless to say, I only blended it on high. Or was it low? I tasted the finished product. I think it was still “good” but it wasn’t really good. It probably wouldn’t have been good even if we made it in 1989. I’m excited to go back next week and find some more treasures to whip up.
In honor of spending time at Grandma’s house these last couple of days, I thought I would post (although it’s almost not Friday anymore) a picture of me and Alan with Grandma. Happy Friday!
We went to the beach today with a bunch of moms and kids from our ward (church group). We had a lot of fun, even with London screaming at her friends.
Building sand temples. That's what London told me.
She was really cranky. Usually that means she’s really tired. And she was. She fell asleep in the car on the way home and slept for almost 3 hours. This is very unusual. It is very rare that London ever naps anymore. After 3 hours we decided it was time for her to wake up so she would go to bed tonight. Usually bed time for the kids is 7:00. That time is too early for London on the days she naps, so today we kept her up and let her watch a movie. We chose Home Alone. I was sure she would think it was hilarious. I was wrong.
London may have thought the movie was funny and really enjoyed it if she was really watching it and not asking question for the entire 103 minutes. Instead, I spent the whole movie trying to convince her that it wasn’t real; that the burglars weren’t really real. I kept telling her that everybody in the movie was just pretending. It’s a difficult concept for her to grasp. Now it’s 10:00. I already spent a good half hour “sleeping” with her, in which I was sleeping and she was not. She won’t go to sleep. She’s totally freaked out about the “bad guys.” Note to self: only cartoons for this girl for a long, long time (unless it’s a musical).
I recently bought two new cookbooks. One is Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. The other is The Sneaky Chef Returns by Missy Chase Lapine. I thought these would bring some great ideas into my normal cooking. You see, the problem is, London doesn’t like vegetables. At least she says she doesn’t like vegetables. I try everything I can to trick her and make her eat them, but the fact of the matter is, if she thinks it might be a vegetable, she won’t eat it. When I found these books, I thought it was the perfect solution. And it would have been, except that it doesn’t work. Somehow, that girl can identify vegetables in ANYTHING! She doesn’t even know it’s vegetables. She just knows that she doesn’t like it. I thought it would be a no-fail with stuffed shells. London loves cheese. The vegetable (cauliflower) was hidden in the cheese, so even if she didn’t eat the rest, at least she would eat the cheese. Wouldn’t you know, she announced after one bite, that she didn’t like that kind of cheese. Okay, maybe I was a little too overzealous with that one. I tried mozzarella sticks How could one go wrong with mozzarella sticks? That cheese was no good either. I have tried a number of concoctions with ideas from those two books. Not one has worked. Today was sweet potatoes in grilled cheese sandwiches. I didn’t even like them. For the record, Ashton loved it. I just told London to cover it with ketchup and she wouldn’t taste it. That’s what I did. At least she ate it that way (and she got nutrition from tomatoes in the ketchup, which was probably more than she got from the sweet potatoes in the sandwich).
There is another reason these books don’t work for us. I think the recipes are good ideas, but really, how much vegetable puree can one hide in any one thing? Not much. London would be better off to just eat two bites of sweet potatoes. It would probably go down a little easier (at least faster) and it wouldn’t have to ruin her otherwise moderately healthy meal.
Verdict: it’s probably time to post the books back on Amazon and give up trying to get my 4-year-old to eat her veggies.
The last time we spent a significant amount of time with Taylor’s parents, London came home singing “Hey Mickey” by Tony Basil. Nice.
Then this morning I heard London singing to the tune “My Hat it Has 3 Corners.” But she wasn’t singing the original words. She was singing, “My bum it has two cheeks. Two cheeks has my bum. And if there weren’t two cheeks, it would not be my bum.” I had never heard that song before so I asked her where she learned it. Her answer, “Papa.” Of course. I should have known he would teach her something like this. And it wasn’t just the song. Then she was telling me all about what a “bum cheek” is. “You see, Mom? It’s this part that pops out right here. See? That’s called a bum cheek. And we have two of them.” And yes, she said this as she was poking my butt. Oh, and on top of it all, we had Brooke and her family over for dinner tonight and London tried to pull down my shirt to show everybody that I have a chest bum. Luckily they all believed her and I didn’t have to put on a show. But she did proceed to pull down her shirt and show them that she kind of has a chest bum. I think Papa might be a bad influence.
Jana started posting flashback photos every Friday. I thought I would join her. This is me and my two brothers and cousin, singing at my aunt’s wedding. I’m guessing this is around 1985 or so.
After church on Sunday, London came running up to me with a card. She was so excited to give it to me and couldn’t wait for me to open it. I guess they were learning about being grateful in their primary class, so they made cards for their parents. According to her, it doesn’t say, “Thank you bear Kiersten,” it says, “Dear Kiersten, thank you.” I think it’s funny that she decided to use my name, rather than something more appropriate, like, “Mom.” She thinks she’s so clever. Oh, and by the way, I’m pretty sure she spelled that all on her own. I’m sure she didn’t need any help.
Even with all of the painting, Taylor and I decided to take advantage of our alone time and go out. I bought a $25 gift card from restaurant.com almost a year ago for the Boathouse Restaurant. We were finally able to use it yesterday. It was a fun little place right on the San Diego harbor. We sat at a table that over-looked the water where the boats were all parked. It was nice to just spend time together and not worry about getting home to the kids. On Monday night we ran some errands together. We didn’t have to be back to put the kids to bed and we didn’t have to drag them all over the place. It’s so easy to get things done without them around! This morning we went to the temple. That’s another thing that we don’t do often enough, just because it’s so hard to get away. We had a nice relaxing time (when we weren’t painting). I’m glad to have my kids back and I think they’re excited to be home, but it was sure nice to not have to worry about them for the last few days.
I spent the better part of my kid-less time painting. But I wasn’t painting a mural. I wasn’t painting a whole wall. I was painting corners. I was cutting in. Sure, there were some walls that needed to be completely re-done, but most of them just needed a bunch of touch-ups. I counted up the hours and I spent at least 12 hours with a paintbrush, painting corners. That’s not even counting the 4 hours Taylor helped yesterday. Let me tell you, I won’t be pulling out another paintbrush any time soon. The problem with this job is, it’s not noticeable. Sure, I notice it. But that’s because I stared at all of the missed spots before. Nobody’s going to come into our house and look around and say, “Wow! It looks like you’ve been painting!” It’s not that I want praise from others, it’s just that I feel like I put in so much work, that I wonder if it’s even worth it if it’s not noticeable. I guess all of those spots won’t bug me (or Taylor) anymore and that probably makes it worth it. So, no pictures of the finished product because you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference anyway.
The kids are home now. I missed them, but I didn’t miss the screaming. I’m sure they were perfect little angels for Taylor’s parents. That seems to be the way things work out: they’re horrible for us, but great for everyone else.
