Tales from the Steppes

2006-06-26

11:53 a.m.
Monday, June 26

I took up my pen tonight. I couldn't seem to write.
It's like I got religion and then I lost the light
- Stan Rogers

I am at home, as the babysitter had basement flooding issues this morning. I have not been down to the cellar yet to see if we have had any cave-ins. The EM is stretching in the living room; the MM and YM are getting to play Playstation for the first time since school got out. All is well and relatively peaceful.

The EM made it back from the beach this weekend. She did not even get too sunburnt over the course of the week. While she did get quite homesick, she still had a good time. I think it has been a little tough for her to get used to her brothers again after a week off. I think it was a good sign that she brought them presents, so probably she doesn't hate them as much as she says she does.

Yesterday was the grocery shopping trip from hell. Nearly 3 1/2 hours from start to finish. My sanity was hanging by a thread by the time we were done. I had to drop the YM off at a birthday party at kid place - once again the only boy with a whole bunch of girls. The MM had spent the night at a friend's and his parents met me there to do the handoff. But the MM was in a sulky mood and did not understand why I would not let him stay and play and made him go to the store instead. I actually had a list, as we were out of many things. So the EM, MM and I started with the produce section.

If you have ever been grocery shopping with children, you learn in a hurry what a complicated process it actually is. I put my children to work - they are not just along for the ride. The EM's first task was to get apples. Which she did. She got a number of different varieties, all in the same bag. I guess in the past I have said get X number of Y variety and had not left it quite so open-ended. It never occurred to me that she did not know that different varieties cost a different amount. Even though there is the sign above the apples.

And so it went. Perhaps I overcomplicate things with my insistance on looking at price and nutritional labels and putting things in the cart so that they do not get smushed. The mongols were not bad about trying to sneak things in. I found no Cap'n Crunch or chips in the cart at checkout. I did wear out the word "No" for the day, though. Ok, by the time we got to the checkout, we had two carts and I had had to go back and retrieve the YM from his party.

And then we had to go through the self-check lanes, much to the ire of others in the store. But hey, there were two other self-check lanes open. It is not like we caused a huge inconvenience. The mongols really wanted to bag the groceries and I am not going to discourage them from any helping they want to do, regardless of how much extra work it causes me. Perhaps that is a bit of an exaggeration, but there is merit in the general philosophy. By the time we got to the car, I was ready to load the groceries by myself. I had been helped enough.

Then home for a full afternoon and evening of cooking. During the week I do not have time to actually cook anything that takes longer than 1/2 hour. By the time I get the kids from the pool, walk the dog, and clean the kitchen from whatever mess has been left, it is usually 7pm. I am tired of eating what can be prepared in that space of time so I decided to essemtially cook for the week yesterday. Relatively uneventful except for barbequeing in the thunderstorm. And rain so hard it nearly put my fire out. But at least I do not have to heat up the kitchen again this week, nor will I end up serving prepared foods.

Of course there is a large chance that the mongols will not be interested in eating the black bean soup or steak with mushroom pies I made. Oh well. They can always have apples and peanut butter, as we now have enough of both.

All of this meandering points to a frustration I have had for many years. It is particularly difficult to cook for my family because the SU has one set of dietary constraints, I have my preferences, and then there are the mongols. The SU needs to restrict his protein intake because he only has one kidney. He does not eat beans or lots of roughage, because his digestive tract cannot handle it - too many surgeries and adhesions due to radiation therapy. I prefer not to eat simple carbohydrates, like beans, and prefer my food spicy. Sugar makes me feel yucky so I eat very little of it. And the kids like simple food but not things like tater tots or pot roast. So there is not much overlap. Salad. A few veggies. Excpt I like mine just this side of raw and he like his softer, so even that is not one size fits all.

Man, what a boring post. I guess it's Monday.