Mommathon

Last month’s book club pick was Frankenstein. I tried to read it, I really truly did, but it was just too much. Did I mention it was written two hundred years ago? The language was so flowery and I already basically knew the story, so it wasn’t very suspenseful. It was also just so miserable and dark and depressing. I just couldn’t stick with it. I am not in high school any more. I don’t have to read anything I don’t want to read. Right? (She said while stomping her foot.) This month’s pick is exactly the opposite. We picked a humorous collections of essays about one man’s dysfunctional family during the holidays.

With all of the illness that has been going through our house this season, soccer season has pretty much been a bust. Liam got to play MAYBE four games. Colm is about the same. Practices…we didn’t make it to too many of those either. It didn’t help that it has been so cold. Running around when it’s warm is a lot different for your lungs than running around when it’s cold and windy. The boys are aware they have missed most of the season and both are very concerned that they aren’t going to get their trophies. I assured them that they could still get their trophies. Their coaches understand and aren’t going to withhold their trophies from them just because they’ve been sick. I let them know that they can also go to the end of season parties as long as they are healthy. (Which also happens to be where you get the trophy.) Soccer sign-ups for the spring season are in three days. I am going to sign them up and hope we are all healthy by then.

I went to go have lunch with Colm today and when Colm saw me he started crying and said he wanted to go home. I felt his head and I knew why. He didn’t look like he felt well. We cleaned up his lunch and headed to the nurse’s office where she confirmed my suspicions. I asked Colm when he started feeling badly and he said at recess. He said he was walking around at recess crying because he didn’t feel good. Broke my heart. He just wanted to go home and lay down and he was stuck outside at recess with gale force winds. Poor guy. So tell your little people that if they don’t feel good they can tell their teacher and she will help them. It may seem obvious to us, but maybe not so much to them.

Update: When I was talking to him about this later he said he was also crying because he was cold and he was trying to stay warm. That REALLY broke my heart. He didn’t feel good AND he was freezing.

We went to our first ever trunk or treat tonight. The only hitch in our plans was that is was raining outside, so trunk or treat outside became table or treat inside. The kids still had a good time. I don’t think they care where it is as long as they can wear their costumes and there’s candy involved.

Me and my ninjas.

I had to post these two pictures. I never, ever get to be in pictures since I am always the picture taker and we also rarely get all of us in a picture.

This was Colm’s favorite table. It had a singing brain and the candydish had a sensor on it so that when you reached in to get some candy, a hand would pop up like it was going to grab you. 🙂

This was also a favorite. This was their candy dish. Liam didn’t want the candy, he just wanted to play with it.

So, we didn’t really need any pumpkins, but who can resist apple donuts, fresh apple cider and apple slushees at the Louisburg Cider Mill? We have gone there before just to enjoy the yummy eats, but had never done the pumpkin patch. (Yes, I highly recommend you go get some doughnuts and cider during the off-season. It’s A LOT less crowded and you can actually browse in the little shop.) So, off we went. It was a beautiful fall day and the boys had a very good time.

Sunday-Mom’s Chicken Enchiladas and Grapes
Monday-Asian Chicken and Orzo Salad and Grapes
Tuesday-Rotel Chicken, Rice and Melon
Wednesday-Shepherd’s Pie
Thursday-Mexican Salad and Melon
Friday-Stir Fry
Saturday-Fish, Mexican Rice, Black Beans

We had a very busy night here tonight. We watch our neighbors’ kids once a month so they can go out and vice versa. Well, tonight was our night to watch their boys. I decided it would be fun to make jack-o-lanterns and Halloween cookies while they were here. I was right, it was fun, but I did not anticipate how difficult it would be to do all of those things at the same time especially when we got started when Sean wasn’t home from work yet (he did make it home in the middle of carving the pumpkins) so I was trying to do all of it on my own. Whew!!!

I had already made the cookie dough. So all I had to do when the boys first arrived was roll it out.

While the cookies were baking, we started on the jack-o-lanterns.

The mess on my kitchen table.

Decorating the cookies

Did I also mention that they squeezed in some time for video games?

You may remember that last April Liam’s best friend in the whole world moved to Florida. It was devastating and this summer was really hard. This was the friend that he always played with and had numerous sleepovers with. They understood each other and loved to do the same things. Yep, the kid who my kid adored moved far, far away. Heartbreaking.

Fast forward to today. Liam had a new friend over to play. They got along so well. It was awesome!!! They both love Legos and Pokemon. They also like to play video games. I am really glad that Liam has found a friend that has the same interests. Also, this boy is nice!!! Appropriate things come out of his mouth and he is polite and not in a Eddie Haskill type of way. They are also in the same class this year. Bonus!!!

Liam has a few friends that he likes to play with that have the same interests. I don’t expect any of them, nor do I want any of them to take the place of his friend that moved. I am, however, excited that Liam has moved on and realized that there are other second grade boys out there who are nice and who like the same things he does. 🙂

Our boys usually take their lunch to school. Liam isn’t really interested in eating anything they have to offer, so that’s why he takes his lunch. Colm REALLY, REALLY likes to eat hot lunch though. He likes the corn dogs, hot dogs, pasta, nachos and the chocolate milk. I am a mean mom though, I make him take his lunch most days. I was feeling nice a few weeks ago, however, and decided to let Colm eat hot lunch several days in a row. He had a horrible week at school that week and I think his teacher was about ready to hang him from the rafters.

It makes me sad that there are some children who rely on school lunch and school breakfast as their major sources of nutrition. It’s crap. There’s no other way around it. Have you seen the macaroni and cheese? It’s florescent…it’s almost green. There’s just so many things wrong with that. Two chocolate milks? How is that healthy? Chicken fries? What is that? How can we fuel our children’s bodies with chicken fries, nachos and chocolate milk and expect them to be able to pay attention and learn? If food is the fuel that runs our children’s bodies, I don’t think corn dogs are premium unleaded.

So, after Colm’s horrible week in kindy I decided to go back to being a mean mom. He has taken his lunch to school every day. He hasn’t had a bad day since. Is there a connection? I think there might be.

Sunday-Chicken, Green Beans, Bread and Butter, Pumpkin Bread
Monday-Fundraiser Dinner for School
Tuesday-Chili and Cornbread
Wednesday-Chili-Lime Salmon, Black Beans and Mexican Rice
Thursday-Stir-Fry
Friday-Chicken Enchiladas or Dinner at Church
Saturday-Date Night