Saturday, March 08, 2008

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

For years, I've battled my kids' predilection to put ketchup on all comestibles. I've read Mrs. Pig's Bulk Buy to the little savages any number of times. To this day I refuse to help them put ketchup on their hotdogs, as I have no wish to aid and abet a culinary crime. And I blame my husband for not nipping this ketchup thing in the bud. If it were up to me, their virgin mouths would never have tasted anything but mustard on their frankfurters.

Anyway, dinner yesterday - baked beans, cauliflower, and salad. No meat, since I'm raising a bunch of Catholics who must be penitent on Fridays in Lent. This restriction makes them more whiny than remorseful, however, as they are used to having hotdogs with their baked beans. Susie, trying to make the best of a bad situation, asked for ketchup for her cauliflower. And, in a moment of weakness, I gave it to her.

You know what? She ate that cauliflower. She said it was, and I quote, "Yum." So, cauliflower and ketchup - go ahead and try it. It's the cuisine du jour. Yum.

I slept on the couch last night. There is only so much snoring one woman can take. I can sleep with regular, rhythmic snoring. It's listening to the "Snore....hold your breath for 15 seconds....loud SNORT....hold your breath...." routine that destroys sleep for me. Call me fussy, but when the person in the bed next to me isn't breathing? I don't find that restful.

It's Saturday, the day we either run around and get a lot of stuff done or else do something fun with the kids. And guess what? We're doing neither. Larry's sick, I've got some lousy head cold that is giving me a bad attitude, and it is pouring rain (cold rain) outside. Luckily, the teens are out of the house all day working a fundraiser (in the rain) for workcamp. I hate having them around on a bad day, because they make me feel worse.

Of course, having the little kids going stir-crazy in the house is no picnic, either. I just bribed them - if they would please leave me alone for 20 minutes, I would play UNO with them. Now they are all sitting at the dining room table (i.e., within earshot) bickering over how to deal out the cards. Good Lord, just kill me now.

I have to pull myself together. I was reminded last night that I am supposed to talk about homeschooling math materials at the curricula meeting today. I don't know what was going through my head when I promised to do that. Maybe I thought the weather would be springlike and none of us would be sick and that I would actually be able to find my math curricula materials in time. Wrong, wrong, and wrong. So I'm showing up with a headache and doped up on Sudafed and Tylenol, with nothing but my son's 6th-grade math workbook in my hands.

Hey, these new homeschooling moms need a dose of reality anyway. Let them see what being home with the kids every day can do to a person. That way they can go into this homeschooling thing with their eyes wide open. With terror. It gets their adrenaline pumping.

18 comments:

  1. On that whole sleeping and not breathing thing? Is it a cold, or does he maybe have sleep apnea? I was diagnosed last year, and my C-PAP has made such a difference in quality of life. [Yeah, I know, people with hammers tend to think that every problem is a nail.]

    Of course, I'm not married, so I don't have to deal with the hissing C-PAP keeping a spouse awake, or the whole "Luke, I am your mother" thing. I wonder if I will ever get to figure out how to integrate a C-PAP and a happy married love life?

    If you think it might be sleep apnea, email me or google it.

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  2. You always crack me up! Graham is only 28 months and he's obsessed with ketchup. I'm not thrilled but he happily eats brocoli and green beans as long as there's ketchup for dipping so I figure it's ok...for now.

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  3. Have you heard about the petition to save homeschooling in California? Scary stuff!

    I put ketchup on my hot dogs, but not much else, I promise.

    My husband snores like that too, and I have to lay there holding my breath until he breathes again. Drives me nuts!

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  4. I do put ketchup on hot dogs, but it's always accompanied by mustard.

    But I've never put it on cauliflower. Interesting. I'm all for whatever gets them to eat their vegetables.

    Feel better.

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  5. Okay, I could have pretty much written this post, minus the rain, teenagers and homeschooling. The snoring thing (it is sleep apnea, I'm sure...my husband has it and choses not to deal with it) is the most disturbing concept. Same here, nonproductive Saturday with me having a miserable head cold and flu...temp and all. I get sick about every 3 years but always, if I'm sick, so is my hubby (he has a sore throat) and guess who gets to sleep? Not the one who just did a night shift last night. Nope. And now our 3 y.o. just spiked a fever and peed the bed during her nap. I won't even get into who cleaned that up and stuff! :) Okay, I know I'm sounding bitter. I usually try never to go there because he's a dear in many ways...just in these type circumstances, those dear ways are scarce!

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  6. The ketchup at your house is like Annie's Goddess salad dressing at mine. My kids put it on everything.

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  7. between the kid and the husband, we go through a shocking amount of ketchup...

    and you know? there's an indian dish of cauliflower and ketchup, and some funky spices, but still...she didn't invent that!

    (http://starchefs.com/features/indian_spotlight/2005/html/cauliflower_s_saran.shtml)

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  8. Yeah, the snoring thing gets pretty old. I usually end up elbowing the guilty party until he turns over. I have contemplated the breathing strips. Ketchup on cauliflower - whatever works. I think it's actually classified as a vegetable in our school's cafeteria.

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  9. I'm not a big ketchup fan myself, but hey whatever gets the kids to eat their veggies, I am all for. I might try that with my oldest the next time he won't eat his veggies. Oh wait, he hates ketchup too. DANG.

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  10. My kids won't eat hot dogs at all. What kinds of kids won't eat hot dogs?

    Little freaks.

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  11. Neither of my girls like ketchup. Am I a blessed woman?

    You make me laugh. That part about the snoring. Oh my gosh...

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  12. LOL! My 8 year old wanted to play UNO today but no one else wanted too. I tried to explain to him that it doesn't work with just 2 people. After explaining "skip" and "reverse", I mean. We'd be there for hours.

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  13. Ranch is the new ketchup. At least in our house. Micah eats Ranch with everything. Meat, veggies, chips, pizza...

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  14. I am SOOOOOO with you on this whole ketchup (catsup) issue. I really don't like that sweet stuff on my sandwiches!!! It will totally destroy on otherwise yummy burger.

    Once YEARS ago, I had company for Sunday Dinner. I made a roast turkey with all the trimmings - - - including my WONDERFUL (if I do say so myself) gravy. After we prayed over the meal, the guest husband ASKED me for KETCHUP!!!!!

    I was such a gracious hostess I said, "FOR WHAT!?! YOU AREN'T PUTTING THAT GROSS STUFF ON MY GOOD TURKEY. USE THE GRAVY!!!"

    I must have terrorized him - - - he didn't ask me for Ketchup ever again. ;-)

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  15. I have to laugh--you really see the silver lining by showing up and scaring those moms! Ha!

    Mr. D and I have the same snoring issues at times (though better of late with his weight loss). I'm also able to sleep through the steady snore, it's the sporadic snore that sets my teeth on edge!

    Good luck bearing up with Lent, Ketchup and Cabin Delirium!

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  16. OK. Seriously. Cauliflower? What, were they out of brussels sprouts at the store or something?

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  17. I've joked that my kids would eat anything if it were covered in ketchup or chocolate sauce. My fussiest eater once ate a whole strawberry - stem and all - after he covered it in fondue chocolate. The look on his face as we watche him eat the green leaves was priceless.

    KEEP BELIEVING

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  18. I have no (two-legged) kids, but I do have to try to sleep with a snore beast. I've gotten used to the snoring, so it doesn't usually bother me until it stops, and then I bolt awake.
    I can't go back to sleep until I've wrestled The Light Of My Existence into a position where he's breathing normally.
    In this household, that frequently means somehow breathing through the cat that is curled around one's head, but you get the idea.

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