The day started out fairly typically for me. I awoke to the sound of someone screaming. Yes, that actually is how most of my days start. It's usually caused by the baby waking up and being lonely or the toddler climbing into the baby's bed and beating him with a toy or the toddler peeing in his bed and being unhappy about it. Despite the unfortunate start to my day, I got up and made pancakes!
Mmmmm...pancakes. Banana Coconut Almond Pancakes. They were yum-tastic. (I didn't take pictures of them, I was still pretty ticked off at this point.) I used the family pancake recipe on the side of the Heart Healthy Bisquick, substituted Vanilla Almond milk for the skim milk and added half of a mashed overripe banana and about a teaspoon of coconut extract. I probably could have used flaked coconut but I'm always afraid that my kids will refuse to eat it if they can actually see the coconut in it. I'm actually fairly proud of this, we rarely (if ever) actually sit down and have breakfast as a family. After I made enough pancakes for everyone to eat I made a few extra dollar sized ones and threw them in the freezer for later.
After breakfast my husband went to work and I began the task of getting all the kids out the door. I had it in my head that we were going to the local water park to have fun. Weee!! I set the girl to getting our towels and water bottles ready while I packed a lunch. After at least two rounds of diaper changes, one forgotten apple juice fermentation explosion, one round of clothes changes, and a few fits in between we made it out the door and into the car.
Once we actually got to the water park the toddler decided that he absolutely did not want to be there. Fortunately he was so freaked out he was beyond the ability to actually throw a fit. He just sat there saying "no water" over and over and over again and wouldn't get out of the car. The Boys and Girls club was taking a day trip there so there were about 3 trillion maniacal kids running around. Even The Girl didn't want to stick around. We decided to go to The Discovery Center instead.
On the way to the Discovery center (about a 25 minute drive from the water park) The Toddler decided to terrorize the baby. He did this by very quickly un-attaching the little hanging car-seat toy do-dad and smacking him with it. Repeatedly. Fortunately The Baby can handle this type of abuse fairly well and just sat there taking it without screaming. After I saw it happen a few times I had to give an ultimatum. "If you do that again, we're going straight home." He did it twice. So we went home.
The Girl was unhappy, she really wanted to make tie-dye cookies in the Snack Attack. The Toddler was unhappy, he just got yelled at and doesn't get to go play. The Baby really didn't know what was going on and was just content to be riding around in the car. I was REALLY unhappy, my kids are all either unhappy, crazy, or infantile and we just spent an hour driving in the car just to go back home!! Ugh.
Once we got home I unpacked our lunches that I made intending to have a little picnic at the water park and we ate lunch at the table. The Toddler had a peanut butter and black currant jelly sandwich (he ate it all!!). The Girl had smoked Tofurky with Havarti and baby greens on a whole wheat sandwich top which she said was great. I used some leftover Shish-kabobs that my FIL made this weekend to make my sandwich. It was grilled chicken, tomatoes, and onions with ruby chard and basil (both from my garden) with a slice of Havarti cheese on a whole wheat sandwich top with a little bit of light Safflower oil Mayonnaise to hold it together.
I realized while I was eating it that it may have been the best sandwich I have ever eaten and that despite the obvioulsy crappy, and rather comical, day that I had been having I had been eating some really great food. So I took a picture of what was left of my sandwich when I had this realization.
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| From Drop Box |
Like I said, that's what was left of it. It was really, really good. My FIL glazed the chicken with leftover Chinese take-out soy sauce and duck sauce packets from the fridge. He just squeezed them into a cup and stirred before he basted the chicken with it. It was some of the best chicken I've ever had. And we all topped off our sandwiches with watermelon.
I managed to squeeze in a shower before I went to a Pilates class. The Toddler was down for his nap, The Baby was refusing one and The Girl was playing on the computer. My husband was home when I got out of the shower and started encouraging me to get ready for the Pilates class. By this point I had pretty much decided that I was going to skip class just so my day would inevitably be crappy and maybe my dinner would be phenomenal. But, if my husband gives me the opportunity to get out of the house, I don't refuse.
Pilates was crappy (I don't enjoy the teacher's style). I went to the grocery store afterward to try to find something for dinner and pick up some things that we have been out of. It was fairly uneventful.
For dinner we had Chicken tenders, green beans, and creamed corn. It wasn't extravagant but there is always something special to be said about comfort food. My husband hugged me when he found out we were having chicken tenders. I love him for those sorts of things.
Again, this little exercise I'm doing with my food actually does seem to make me happier. If I hadn't taken the time to realize how good my food was today I probably would have totally lost my mind. Even though nothing was exotic or dramatic or super fancy, everything was tasty and fun to eat which is probably more important.
Well, I hope you enjoyed my day as much as I did.
Sorry your day involved that much screaming! That really sucks. Good food is key though!
ReplyDeleteI told Elly that I had decided we were going to eat Chicken Tenders every night from now on. She said "You aren't the only one in this house you know".
ReplyDelete