Scattered Sundays and Meal Plan for December 5th-11th
I try really really hard to not judge other people’s parenting. Lord knows mine is far from perfect. It is so far from perfect that I can’t even see a sign that says “Perfect 347 miles”. That being said, I judged a mom so freaking hard yesterday. We were at the library, and her kids wanted to check out multiple books, and she restricted them to one. “Only one book you two, no more”, I heard as I sucked in gallons of stunned air.
Look, I understand not wanting clutter. I understand kids bring things home and then do nothing with them and it drives us crazy as parents. I totally get tripping over items and hating stuff. But, for the love of God, don’t restrict books in your kids lives! Do not do it. Let them bring home as many books as they want. Even if they don’t read a single one of those books, they’re around and one day they just may want to devour every volume of The Magic Tree House they brought home.
I hate working out. The idea of going to a gym or walking on a treadmill makes me so twitchy. True, I used to ride our exercise bike five days a week, but I never enjoyed it. My friend Kristina pretty much summed it up by saying “you’d rather do hours of yard work than ever do yoga”. Truth. But I should probably check out yoga one of these days. Being able to touch my toes seems like a goal I should achieve before my 40th birthday. About a month ago, I started walking with Bennett almost daily. It was more of a desire to get him some fresh air, but it has turned in to something so much bigger. It’s “me” time. I mean, yeah, he’s with me so I’m not alone, but I get to listen to podcasts and clear my mind. We don’t have sidewalks in my little town, but it is safe to walk in the middle of the street most of the time.
Bennett and I have our little route, and I find that I crave getting out for our walks. Between his nap schedule, helping out my parents, and other work, there is a magical hour that we can get out and do our thing. The days it doesn’t happen, I feel I get itchy and need to move. I assume that is what it is like for people who enjoy exercise. I wouldn’t know.
The boys and I went to a local apple farm last weekend, and the owner made me a deal on some apples. They were starting to get a bit soft, and he wanted to unload them. I picked up all 50 pounds for $.35 a pound. The farm isn’t certified organic, but only uses organic practices, and 50 pounds of apples for $17.50 is a hell of a deal. Troy and I had an epic date night on Thursday saucing those apples. That sounds much dirtier than it was.
And then since all the canning crap was already out, I made strawberry jam the next night. Like a stupid idiot. We still have gallons and gallons of strawberries and blackberries that we picked this summer and froze. We ended up with 24 jam jars, and a tiny bit more room in the freezer. And some Christmas presents!
If you are still looking for the prefect holiday present for loved ones in your life, check out my Christmas gift post.
Monday:: Chef salads with ham, turkey, hardboiled eggs, pickles asparagus (randomly, one of Bennett’s favorite snacks) and biscuits.
Tuesday:: This recipe for General Tso’s chicken. Willing to give it a try! Paired with rice and broccoli, just like is suggested in the recipe.
Wednesday:: Soup, grilled cheese, and roasted broccoli. Some kind of veggie soup with tomatoes and leftover grilled chicken. I recently had a Moroccan chicken soup at lunch, and it had couscous in it. I am fresh out of couscous, but I have barley…so we’re calling it a chicken, vegetable, barley soup. Sounds right.
Thursday:: Organic hot dogs I found on sale (sounds tasty, right? 🙂 ), salad, and roasted beets with crumbled goat cheese and hazelnuts.
Friday:: Popcorn/movie night
Saturday:: Out or take out. Incorporating a cheat day in to every other meal plan just feels right.
Sunday:: Family dinner. Hopefully. I have a pie in the freezer from Thanksgiving that needs to be gone.
What are you having this week?
A week or two ago I stopped by the library and saw a small child carrying a large stack of books, some of which were falling because she had so many and was so small. It made me smile and reminded me of how my mom would let me check out a million books too. So, yes, there was probably a reason the woman you saw only let her kids have one, but I would have inhaled sharply too!
Also, your kids are super cute.
I can remember having to limit my step kids on library books. We only had them occasionally and they’d want to take out huge stacks of books from the library and then they’d disappear “home” and I’d be stuck searching for lost library books.
I hear ya on enjoying your walks. For many years my partner’s Mom lived with us. She developed Alzheimers and since he was a night owl I was the one getting up in the morning to make sure she was supervised. She was a morning person too. I used to slip out for a long walk around 7AM most mornings. It was a lovely way to just be responsibility free for 45 minutes or so before my day started.
You would have judged me as a mom also. I limit my kids to 2-3 books each. The range is due to behavior and how long we had to search for books before going to the libaray. I do this to limit my or my kids financial responsibility for paying for lost books. Yes I have made my kids pay for books they have irresponsible lost. Thank goodness ebook and audiobook that have automatic returns.
It’s hard not to judge in some situations, but we never do know the circumstances! A couple weeks ago we went to the library so my 12 year old son could return 15-20 books he had read and he wanted to get more. (It’s uncomfortable to walk with a 40 lb backpack bulging with books, so I drove him) I restricted my 3 younger/middle kids to getting 1 book each that day. The reasoning, we already had about 20 more library books at home still that they weren’t finished with! 😉
In regards to judging the stingy book Mom at the library, I wanted to offer an alternate viewpoint. Before going into it, please know that I work at a public library, have 4 library cards that are used regularly and have about 50 library books in my home at any given moment. A lot of which I’ll never get to read before I turn back in but I just love having books around.
Maybe this Mom doesn’t own a car and her family uses public transportation, making big book hauls unrealistic.
With that in mind, maybe they stop by the library every day to swap out for a new book. I’ve serve families like that on a regular basis.
Maybe this family lives in a temporary or transitional living situation, such as a shelter or a domestic abuse safety house. This limits space as well as their stability. It can also make it difficult to keep track of items.
Our library issues cards to members of the community who are in transition and do not have a permanent address. However, the checkout limit on those cards is 3 items.
Perhaps the Mom has partial custody and us sending those kids to their other parent’s house with a single book. And maybe the living situation isn’t great over there so she wants to limit her liability for lost or damaged items.
I wasn’t there so I obviously can’t judge the entire situation for myself. I would be more concerned if a parent came in and checked out 40 adult and kid DVDs but wouldn’t let their kids get a single book, even after the kid asked for one. That is painful for me to watch. Happens all the time.
I’ve been reading your blog for a long time and don’t think I’ve ever commented until now. But I was inclined to offer an additional viewpoint to your judgement of this lady.
Thanks for your comment and your perspective. Working at a library may be my dream job, so that is awesome!
Did you see the news that the creator of General Tso’s chicken has died?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/lifestyle/food/peng-chang-kuei-credited-as-creator-of-general-tsos-chicken-dies-at-97/2016/12/02/3450e11e-b8a3-11e6-959c-172c82123976_story.html?client=safari
I have no idea how I stumbled upon your blog way back.. but I love your frank-ness. I do miss the Monday blog link-up but I will survive.. That said.. I have you to thank for finally tightening down and putting up a weekly meal plan! I have always been a couponer/ frugal deal finder, rather cook it at home than go out person.. but this past year or so things have just gotten busier as the kids are getting older..So a few months ago.. in a fit of personal life re-organization.. I had torn through the freezers and compiled a list of what meats/items we had on hand and started with that 1 week of dinner plans.. and it has snowballed from there.
I just checked the freezer list on the fridge and wrote a base meal plan for the week! Pulled out shoulder steaks to partially thaw so I can get them sliced and marinating for tomorrow… pulled a partial turkey breast out to thaw for this evening..After everyone has breakfast I will start refilling the kitchen supplies with lunch box items/staples and them make the grocery list.. If I don’t get some cheese and salad supplies in this house I have one who is gonna flip on me!
Happy Sunday!