Journey Beyond Survival

Over the weekend it was simply laziness.  We watched  Avatar .  Or Hubbend and miss THANG did.  We were lazy and watching it while they were traveling.  So they had to see what the kaffufel was all about. Strike 1 Monday there was the doctor appointment, house inspection, and emergency foraging. That's understandable. Tuesday Chickadee was rather out of sorts.  Without the other kids, and I don't know what else was making her grumpy.  I never do.  Frustrating.  So we didn't go during the day.  I thought perhaps I could sneak out later to get the HUGE shopping done.  Or at least the twice-a-week farmers' market. Nope.  Beansprout heard I was going out.  He reminded me that I've promised for a coupla weeks to get his hair cut.  He is not a hippie or a rockstar or jonas brother.  Nope.  He goes crazy if it touches his ears. So, I took him to the corner Smalltown salon.  It took forever  and h...

At our house we are doing something new. I thought we would wait for a couple more years, but these kids are driving me crazy they really seem ready. I think they will benefit, and I will benefit. It all started when someone said, "EW! Not again!" When I told them what was for dinner. For the umpteenth time. Rolling eyes, slumped forks, standoffs involving grouchiness on all sides, it was all too much. So instead of soliciting their suggestions-again-I put them in charge. That's right. I have a five year old in charge of my dinner this week. The rules are that they have to be healthy, and that they also have to be affordable. So after a round of shooting down, which is so much fun, of mac 'n cheese, ramen noodles, and brownies for dinner, they chose something I deemed Dinner. We made a list of what they needed. We went shopping. We practiced looking at nutrition labels. We checked out. Even Hubbend pitched in and made angel hair spaghetti last nig...

*photo by Norman Rockwell* Goal #1 for my Me So Hongry mini challenge was to FIX REAL FOOD . Apparently this is a bigger problem for me than I thought. Denial. Not just the name of a river in Egypt. I was thinking that I did just fine with this. I got a little busy sometimes, and picked up fast food. Also, there were a few days that I didn't have time to fix dinner and so we ate pantry scroungings. But I thought MOST OF THE TIME I got a great meal on the table. HA, HA HA HA. That is so NOT true. Sorry. I'll stop yelling at you with my type. I hadn't realized how badly off track I was until I began to track myself for this challenge. Really trying hard resulted in me getting 4 dinners on the table. Dinners that did not resemble even remotely my ideals. You know the ones. Freeze your eyeballs. Don't you dare let them roll! Yes, it is the Tasty Food, Real Food, and Simple Food. I'm heaving sighs of deep realization. Chickadee and her requisite li...