It's A Race

When we get home, Kate races from the truck in an effort to make it inside the house before the garage door finishes closing. She came up with this little competition on her own one day. I forget about her compulsion some days and I push the garage button as I ask her to make sure to grab her backpack or wrappers that she has left in the truck before she goes inside but she is already gone, lickety-split, before I even finish my sentence. I get all irritated that she has run off and left me to pick up the pieces and then I remember.

One time I hollered out to her to stop and come back and get her things she left behind and she turned around all in a huff and complained, "Mom, you made me lose!"

Now if I were clever, I would just WAIT to push the garage door button, giving her plenty of time to grab her things before the race is on. 

Oatmeal Anyone?

Every weekday morning for the past 8-9 months I have made Scott breakfast, that is except for Fridays when he goes to breakfast with his brother and his Dad. Saturdays and Sundays Scott makes waffles or pancakes for the family. Because I'm making him breakfast four days a week, I worry that my food will get monotonous. I try to vary what he eats a little so he doesn't get too bored, or really so I don't get bored.

Here are some regular breakfast meals for Scott:
a sausage patty, eggs, and an English muffin
bacon, eggs, and an English muffin
bacon, eggs, and toast
hash-browns (from leftover potatoes), eggs, and sausage
an omelette with mushrooms and bacon
pancakes
waffles
french toast
cut up hot dog, eggs, and sour dough
etc. you get the picture. I even vary the eggs with scrambled, fried, hard boiled, extra whites and so on.

Well I thought of a new diet for Scott. I made him eggs and oatmeal today (the homemade rolled oats with almond milk, honey, and cinnamon). He ate the eggs and took one bite of the oatmeal and said he was full. HA! As I thought of how much he normally eats for breakfast I knew he couldn't possibly be full. He must have hated it. I asked him if he liked it and he said it was "okay" and that he would have it if there was nothing else. I offered to fix him some frozen waffles and he declined. So there, this morning Scott is on the Atkins diet by default.

Sometimes I get all up-in-arms annoyed with my picky eaters. Kate gags when she eats foods that gross her out (I swear she does it on purpose). Both Scott and Kate will tell me they like a certain food and I will fix it a few times in a month or more and then they will suddenly tell me they are sick of it and not to fix it again. I never know when this break-up with a certain food will occur so I am constantly guessing.

I talked to a friend yesterday and she shared a few similar quams about feeding her family. I felt better knowing I wasn't alone with it.

My favorite is when I make food for Kate and she refuses to eat whatever it is and she will tell me it's gross and I say, "Let me try it." And as she passes it to me to taste so I can see if I did something amiss when I prepared it and she says, "I know you'll think it's good, you eat everything."

I love the book Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman; ecellent children's, picture book! That book always makes me smile when I think of my two-terrible eaters. And I remind myself how nice it is that I only have to deal with two. Phew!

Easter

 Jake, Whitney. Ashlee, Suzie, Hailey, Zac, Jessica, Kate

On Saturday, Scott's parents hosted an Easter Egg Hunt. Kathy put together a lovely dinner and the kids all searched for eggs. Hurray for Jessica who found the extra egg filled with money.

On Sunday, we hosted some of my family for Easter dinner and we went full-on non-traditional. We had a bring-your-own meat barbecue with sweet potato fries, rolls, salad, fruit, and strawberry shortcake! Kate and I decorated eggs, hid candy-filled eggs for the adults to find, and Kate sound-spelled all the name cards for the table (Jenee, Camrin, Jooliee, etc).

Scott and Kate gave the Easter message - Kate was shy, which is always a surprise to me because she is so NOT shy. Because of her stage fright, she whispered the message to Scott and he repeated what she said.

With Spring budding all around us, we couldn't help but appreciate the symbolism between Christ and his Resurrection and the renewal that comes with Spring.

After the message, we watched the sun set on the Great Salt Lake from the fire break road and walked to Haddad's waterfall up above our house. What a beautiful sight and a fun, yet non-traditional, Easter.