Update on the meals

Food here is sort of a big thing. I have found when I neglect this part of my mothering, I end up with crabby kids.

My most recent discovery is packing washed and cut romaine lettuce in wide mouth canning jars and vacuum packing them. It is very easy to do with my Foodsaver vacuum packer. I started doing this about 3 weeks ago. The amount of salad the family is consuming has tripled. We now regularly go through 5 large heads of romaine lettuce. I buy the romaine at a wholesale vegetable store, look for white bottoms of the head of lettuce (indicating freshness), bring it home and pack it up. The whole family helps out with different stations/jobs. One washes, I cut, one scoops into the salad spinner and dries, the lettuce goes into a big bowl and is then packed into jars, then vacuum packed and into the frig. The lettuce lasts 10-14 days this way.

It has been wonderful for meal prep. Absolutely wonderful! I grab a couple jars and some toppings and we have a fresh salad on the table.

I have also been making homemade dressings. They taste so much better than the store bought. I have been making salad dressing for a while but we had glop problems because I was making them in canning jars. #4 and #5 regularly had "ranch floods" on their plates. I found at Gordon's Food Service squeeze bottles. The opening of the bottles were wide mouth so it is easy to pour dressing after it has been made.

DH thinks a salad isn't a salad without croutons. I learned how to make croutons. I now have a use for all those bread crusts and ends that the kids won't eat. After I make a batch, normally an entire loaf of bread worth, I also vacuum pack them in mason jars. With the whole family eating croutons the jars are regularly empty! I know I hit upon a good way to make them when the 16 year old said at lunch yesterday, "These are the best croutons Mom."

Salad-in-a-jar.com has other great ideas.

Oh.my.goodness!

I emerge from the shower to find both girls snuggled up with dad in our bed. Since we have had a few puddles around here lately, I asked them to go to the bathroom. They resisted. It is cold this morning and the bed is warm. So, I shoo-ed them out of bed. This is the comment I hear:

#6 to #5

"OK, OK! (rolling eyes and rubber chicken body), let's go squeeze de lemon."


never a dull moment around here

Overheard from the Basement Bathroom

DH opens the door to the basement bathroom. #6 had gone in about 5 minutes earlier.

DH: What are you doing using a magic eraser on your bottom!!???
#6 smiles
DH: Who made this puddle on the floor?
#6 smiles

Sometimes husbands ask the silliest questions.

Sitting at the dining table with #1 and #2

#1: No!! You can't touch this!
#2: You are NOT M.C. Hammer.
#1: Gasps
#2: and if you are M.C. Hammer, I am Chuck Norris. And I CAN touch you.

mother is laughing and almost needs the Heimlich maneuver.

Giggle for the Day

Mom! Dis is how I wite cuwsive...

See?! I swibble cuwsive!!

Thank you #6!

(I would have posted a picture but she used yellow dry erase marker on her white board. It didn't show up.)

School is on the move today

We are heading to a library for school today. #1 and #2 are meeting a math tutor (DH is so busy with work he can't do math lessons with them anymore.). That means 4 other kids and a mom are schooling in the library.

The little girls are packing everything in sight. No joke. "Mom? CAn I read OUR books at the wiebwawy?" #5 just started to panic. "MOM! Are we going to pack the piano??? Cause I haf to do piano fowa school." I just calmed her down and told her to go practice her piano now.

deep breaths, deep breaths

I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.

“People often say to me that motivation doesn’t last. Well neither does bathing…that’s why we recommend it daily. In a perfect world, we hear something once, we record it in our brain and never need to hear it again. Well, I don’t know where you’re living, but my world is far from perfect. I occasionally have doubts, fears, and disappointments in my life. During those times I need “shots of inspiration” to reinforce, to encourage, and to motivate.”

Zig Ziglar