Are You Prepared For This?

Phillip and I attended some preparedness seminars at our chapel today. Of course, since we're preparedness-challenged, we forgot to prepare accommodations for our toddler so she ended up coming with us.

We learned a lot of helpful things this afternoon, and I'm excited to put some of them into practice. I suppose it says something about my priorities that my favorite thing I learned was a simple food storage recipe that I could actually bear to eat. You just cook 2 cups of dry macaroni or other pasta (I use Barilla Plus Multigrain pasta because it tastes like regular pasta but is much more nutritious), then drain it and stir in a can of cream of mushroom soup and a 12oz can of canned chicken from Costco. And that's it. It's tasty in an unassuming sort of way, and it would be easy to jazz up with whatever seasonings you're in the mood for (curry or Italian seasoning come to mind).

My other favorite thing I learned was that Katadyn makes simple purifying drink bottles that you can fill with nearly a liter of clear water, then immediately squeeze filtered, drinkable water out the top. They filter out bacteria, viruses, you name it. I've heard you get a bit of a workout squeezing the water out, but I love the simplicity of the concept. I think I know what's going on my birthday list this year . . .

One of Those Days

As a parent you learn a lot about efficiency and planning ahead, but no matter how much experience you gain, you still make mistakes now and then. Like today, when I gave my toddler a cupcake an hour AFTER I vacuumed.

Crumbs. Ev.Er.Y.Where. Sigh. Next time we shall eat the cupcake outside, methinks.

As if that weren't enough, I also dressed her in white pants before we went outside to play with sidewalk chalk. Yeah. I know.

Another Lousy Peach

During my brief sojourn in mortality, I've learned there are certain irrefutable laws of the universe. For example:

1) For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
2) The harder you work to pass a slowpoke on the road, the sooner you'll find yourself stuck behind a slowerpoke (whereupon the first slowpoke will promptly catch up to you, and probably laugh).
3) Entropy (i.e. disorder, randomness) tends to increase over time (especially if toddlers are involved).
4) I have absolutely no skill for selecting ripe peaches. None. Zero. The end.

Use the Fork, Luke

What do you get when you combine Darth Vader with a baby shower cake?

You know you want to find out.

It is your destiny.

Just Plain Chicken

Today, for the first time in my life, I cut up a whole chicken. I'd like to say I did it because I'm thrifty and whole chickens are cheap (which they are), or because I'm on some sort of back-to-nature foodie kick (which I'm not), but the truth is that the grocery store employee put someone else's bird in my bag, and when I went back to return it like a good citizen they said they couldn't accept it. It's been sitting in my freezer for weeks now, and by golly I wanted my freezer space back, so I decided today was the day.

The internet site I looked up made the process look quick and simple. I estimated it would take me five minutes tops. It took me over an hour. I sweated; I squinted; Daniel made fitful, bored noises in his rocker until naptime finally rolled around. We won't talk about the utter mess I made of our kitchen (thank goodness for disinfecting wipes). I take some solace from the fact that I ultimately achieved my poultry-related goal, but I'm not sure I'll attempt it again any time soon.

Doing Nothing With Daniel

"I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, 'Where's the self-help section?' She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose." --George Carlin
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I've been reading a few self-help books lately. Most of them are related to personal finance (you'll probably hear about them in some later post), but I also recently read one called Simplify Your Life: 100 Ways to Slow Down and Enjoy the Things That Really Matter by Elaine St. James. Some of her suggestions were helpful (e.g. go with patterned carpet because it hides spots), some I was already doing (e.g. don't buy clothes that need dry cleaning), and some was a bit too hardcore simple for me (e.g. don't make your bed; skip the holidays).

One idea that I initially filed in that last category was her suggestion to "do nothing" for one day a month. Even if this was remotely possible for a mother of two young children, I'm not sure I'd want to spend an entire day just communing with the universe and the dust motes.

To my surprise, though, I've since realized that "nothing" is one of my favorite things to do with Baby Daniel. When we're the only ones awake in the house I love to just cuddle him close or watch him stare intently at random objects in the room. Sometimes he looks at me and we have fun little cooing conversations, but most of the time it's just peaceful and soothing to quietly be together, doing "nothing."

Getting in Touch with My Inner Child

As a parent, I often find myself doing things I never would have imagined in the B.C. years (before children). And I'm not just talking about diapers and spit-up, though those could each be a post of their own. But I digress.

When Daniel wakes up hungry, I often bounce him a little and say, "Shhhhhhhhh," to soothe him. Well, lately I've noticed that when I having in a particularly stressful moment, I say, "Shhhhhhhhh," and bounce myself up and down. I'm sure it looks strange, but it actually helps.

I've also noticed that I'm picking up some Joy-speak for certain things. She calls water "fuff-fuff" and blankets "bittuhs," and when I'm talking to her I find that I use her "words" for those items, even though she understands the more standard terms for them.

Of course, Joy likes following our lead, too, especially at mealtimes. She doesn't necessarily eat what we eat (alas), but she does insist on sitting in a big chair, eating on a big plate, and using big utensils. The other day we were having yogurt with lunch, and since I didn't relish the idea of Joy inevitably spilling huge spoonfuls of it onto the floor, I decided it would be easiest to just get out a little, plastic child spoon for my place and ask her which color she wanted for herself. As we sat there eating our Yoplait, I reflected that eating with red utensils was kind of fun, and that it's a pity they don't make adult-size ones. Ah, the simple pleasures you experience as a parent.