If you are at the park with Colm and it is almost time to go and you tell him he can go down the slide two more times and then it’s time to go, he will stop sliding and go do something else. (If I don’t slide, then we will never have to leave.) The same goes for at the pool. If you tell him he can jump in two more times he will stop jumping and go do something else. Well, this week on the way to school he asked me if I had made his lunch and when I told him that I had he said he didn’t want to eat lunch at school. I asked him why…this is the funny part. They have a rest time after lunch. Colm doesn’t like rest time. So, if I don’t pack his lunch, then he doesn’t have to eat lunch which means he doesn’t have to…you got it….rest.
Archive for August 2008
I have been thinking a lot about friendships this past week. At Liam’s old school I was friends with many of the moms and still talk with them around the neighborhood. But let’s be honest, we are neighbors and yes I see them, but I don’t see them as often as I used to because our kids don’t go to the same school, so we are a bit out of the loop. All of my friends from church have kids who go to different schools than my kids. I belong to a group at church for people who have young children, but my kids are getting older and I won’t be able to join that group anymore in a year or two. How will I maintain my friendships with these people who I may or may not see at Mass on a weekly basis? Which gets me to my point. Friendships take work. I have known my dear friends, Dana and Christie, for 20 years although we haven’t lived in the same state for most of those years. I always see Christie when she comes in town and we e-mail and chat on the phone occassionally. I don’t get to see or talk to Dana as much, but we still keep in touch via e-mail and blogs. (I should call you Dana, but the time difference is a killer.) I used to have a neighbor who I was friends with who now lives in Colorado. She has lived there for about 5 years. We still keep in touch and we almost always get together, even if it is just for lunch, when she comes to town. It is important for me to keep up my friendships with my neighbors as well, so I am going to have to be pro-active. Not only is this important for me, but it is important for the kids to maintain the friendships they have made with the neighborhood kids as well. We rearranged our plans on Saturday because Liam’s friend wanted to come over and play about the time we were getting ready to walk out the door. That same friend is spending the night tonight. I know Liam doesn’t see it as work, but if you don’t hold up your end, friendships can easily fizzle. I am sure I will have great friends with the mom’s at our new school and I will have to work at maintaining the friendships that I have made at church when I cross that bridge in a few years. It may seem like I am complaining, but I am doing exactly the opposite. How blessed we are to have neighborhood friends, church friends AND school friends. 🙂
If you have not joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) yet, I highly recommend doing so, although you might have to wait until next year’s growing season. There are a few around town; I will tell you what I love about ours. Many CSA’a just give you fruits and veggies that are locally grown. The one we belong to often includes bread from local bakeries, dairy products, tofu, meat, etc. I also love it because each item that is available each week has a point value. So, if you don’t like one of the items that has a two-point value, you can trade it in for another two-point item or maybe two one-point items…you get the idea. I also like it because there are two different days and times that you can pick your stuff up. This week’s list was: drinkable yogurt, ground bison, eight-grain bread, finishing sauce (think A-1), watermelon, eggplant, grape tomatoes, and million dollar pickles. I traded in the pickles for more yogurt and the bison and finishing sauce for a roasting chicken. Everything came from Kansas and Missouri, except the yogurt which came from Iowa and most of it was organic. Next week we get milk, ground chuck, asiago bread, butternut squash, tomatoes and tofu. I need to start looking for recipes. 🙂
I was at a party the other day and another mom shared this story…
She spent all last school year trying to get her sixth grade boy to shower and use deodorant. Every day she told him he was stinky and to go upstairs, shower, put on CLEAN clothes and comb his hair. He didn’t get it. Well, he is a seventh grader now. She was so excited to shop with him this year. Before school started they got some decent clothes, some deodorant and some Axe. He came downstairs on the first day of school and he looked and smelled great. She asked him if he used his deodorant and he said he did. He also said he used his Axe and that he had even sprayed his balls (his words, not mine) with it. The mom about passed out and asked him why he did that. He said, “It’s the first day of school, Mom. You never know.”
I hope this isn’t a peek into my future. What are seventh graders doing at school nowadays??? I know what I was doing in seventh grade and it didn’t require spraying Love’s Baby Soft all over my nether regions.
Some back to school picks for the week.
SUCH A GOOD BOOK!!! I can’t say what I want to say because if I say it then it might possibly ruin the book for you if you read it. So good.
I have not been to a Royals game in a very, very, very long time and now I remember why. We went last night to see our niece perform in the pre-game show. Well, me missed the pre-game show because there were a gazillion people waiting in line to get in. I didn’t think that was usually an issue at Royals games anymore. So, basically we missed the entire reason we went to the game. Anyways, we FINALLY got in and had to walk around forever to get to our horrible seats because the construction they are doing kept us from getting to our seats the way we should have been able to. Let’s get back to the horrible seats. I went to MANY Royals games in my youth and I have NEVER had such horrible seats, but they were the only seats available. Can you believe that? I also didn’t know that when you have horrible seats you also have horrible food. You only get good food when you are down closer to the field. I had no idea. The vendor guys don’t even walk around up where we were last night. So, I go and get our food and drinks, sit down and spill a drink all over the guy and girl in front of us. We recover from that though and the rest of the night goes smoothly other than that the way Colm’s little legs hang over the edge of his chair makes him keep kicking the gal in front of him (who is with the same group of people who got the drink spilled all over them). I felt like I was in the worst coach seating ever available on an any airplane ever. The game was boring and we finally left at the 8th inning, as did lots of other people. We then went to have some real food at Mimi’s. The thing that made this whole night even worse is that because we were going to watch our niece (who we didn’t end up getting to see at all) we didn’t get to go to Irish night at the Wizards game. Even if it hadn’t been Irish night the stadium is SO MUCH nicer, there are no bad seats and the food is way better. I think we will be going to sporting events in Kansas from now on.
Peanut Butter, Chocolate, & Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup Nutella or other chocolate spread
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 – 1 cup rolled oats
1/2 – 2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Stir in the peanut butter, Nutella, vanilla and egg until well blended. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the batter just until moistened. Mix in the oats and chocolate chips until evenly distributed. Drop by tablespoonfuls on to lightly greased cookie sheets.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until the edges start to brown. Cool on cookie sheets for about 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
I haven’t tried it yet, but I am going to make some tomorrow. My dear friend Dana, who has had some, says they are delicioso!
Colm was off to school today. I dropped him off while he was still eating his cereal bar in true Colm fashion. 🙂