The Art of Homemaking: Dinnertime

Notice the title isn't "I'm a good cook." I'm not and my cooking skills aren't what this post is about. I'm not really bragging here, just dumping all my thoughts about dinner making.

We eat dinner as a family every night with very rare exceptions. Sometimes Justin works late and we don't wait for him. Sometimes it's cheese sandwiches or crepes but we still eat together. Why? Here are a few reasons.

- Justin and I were both raised this way so doing it any other way would be weird.
- My kids and husband are important so I'm willing to spend the time and effort.
- I like to eat.
- It's cheaper than eating out.
- It's healthier than eating out.
- Dinnertime teaches my kids to help out, sit still, and reinforces the fact that we are family unit.

If you'll notice "I like to cook" is not on my list. I don't really like to cook. I might if I only cooked when I wanted to and not every single day. Sometimes I really don't want to cook and going into the kitchen is downright painful. Luckily Justin likes to cook and he handles most of the cooking on the weekends and will even whip up some French toast if I've had a bad day during the week.

But for the most part, I'm there, chopping, stirring, mixing, baking, sauteeing, grating, opening cans. My biggest Pinterest board is my Dinner one. I am always looking for new recipes because even though I've been married for 10 years, I still feel like I'm still building my repertoire of recipes and cooking skills. I like recipes with few and simple ingredients. If I started a cooking blog, it would be called, "The Lazy Chef" or "Cooking Shortcuts with Di."

Ever had dinner with 3 little kids and a baby? It's not all pleasant conversation and good table manners. We've had to institute dinnertime rules.

Notice how "Stay in your chair" and "Sit up in your chair" are two separate rules. I had to get specific there.

I have to plan my meals a week in advance because I do not do well on the fly. It's like I have to mentally prepare all day to make taco soup.

We recently watched the documentary Cooked by Michael Pollan. He made me feel like what I am doing is important. We are teaching our children that nature feeds us, not restaurants or corporations. Our history and values and culture are passed down through our home cooked meals. Making dinner is noble. Thanks Michael Pollan for keeping me motivated! And thanks to my Mom for setting such a great example.

Get your Tom Brady Pants On

With all the birthday hub-bub, I failed to mention anything about the Superbowl. Henry is quite the football fan. It's kind of ridiculous actually. Months ago when he started to get into watching NFL games and college games with Justin, I thought it was just he wanting to do what dad does. But then one evening when he watched the entire Army v Navy game ALL BY HIMSELF, I knew that his fandom transcended any sort of "I wanna be like you dad" sentiment. Most mornings he would ask me to check the scores of the last night's games (he has to go to bed before they are over). I've googled sports scores way more than I care to admit. He's picked out a few teams he's loyal to: Green Bay and BYU. Any other games he'll switch who he's cheering for to whichever team in winning.

He's constantly barraging Justin with questions about win/loss stats and the difference between college and NFL teams. "Is Michigan a college team? What's their name?" He keeps his own tally sheets for their scores and will run upstairs to tell Justin what just happened. He's trying so hard to put colleges/cities/mascots all in order in his 5-year-old brain. "That's a Dad question, bud. You'll have to wait for Dad to get home." He has tested my football knowledge and I've discovered I know more than I want to.

So you can imagine what a big deal the Superbowl was to this kid. His beloved Packers did not make it so he jumped on the Patriots bandwagon.

During the 4th quarter (or whenever it was) when the Patriots finally showed up and the game was getting close and exciting (do you love my detail here?) Justin said, "Better get your Tom Brady pants on" as a way to say "Don't mess up Patriots, you have a chance." Henry said, "I have pants like that!" and ran upstairs.

He came down dressed like this:

We all got a pretty good laugh. Nearly 3 weeks later, Henry still calls these his Tom Brady pants and any pants like them. "Hey Mom, you have Tom Brady pants too." I love this kid. Hate football but love this kid. And if you hear us say, "Get your Tom Brady pants on" it just means get ready to play to win.

Erica took this picture of some of her prized possessions.

James is super happy on his changing table. I haven't figured out what it is about this spot that my babies love.

For Valentines Day, in keeping with tradition, I got my kids each their own bag of candy and a new book.

Sarah got a Ramona book and was the only one who would pose for the camera. Erica got Little Critter and the New Baby, Henry got Nate the Great and James got Where is the Green Sheep?

Then it turned into a dance party like most nights do right before bedtime.

Erica put on this headband and Henry's sunglasses but declared she didn't want anyone to look at her. She was mad I was taking pictures.

So we started doing this last week. B-bye 10-year-old cheap carpet.

I can't tell you how happy it made me to see this stuff torn to pieces and hauled out of here.

This guy right here deserves all the credit. He doesn't like home renovation projects so this is all done out of love for me.

We also took out the wainscoting in the kitchen and I repainted the walls.

Oh man, no turning back now!

Justin's dad and brothers have been over to help. We borrowed saws from my dad and a friend so this is definitely a group effort. I am not as much help as I wanted to be with a cold, sick kids, and a baby for that matter.

Tuesday night the wind and rain came in so we had to move the saws to the garage. The couches are in there so that put an end to cutting. This is where my fridge has been since Tuesday night.

And my oven is in the living room.

And these pretty things lining the walls.

But it's all been worth it. I hope after this weekend I'll be able to share some finished photos.

Now I gotta go make some pancake batter for dinner. I've only had a crockpot, a toaster, and an electric griddle to cook with for a few days.

James at 3 Months

I finally did it. I got a picture of James's super adorable smile and here it is.

Go ahead, I'll wait for you to make it your desktop background. Or perhaps you prefer this one.

Hello big eyes.

My little bear cub.

James loves sucking on his fingers so much, we've wondered if maybe he'd be the first of my kids to take a binky. But then I remembered my other kids didn't want a binky because they loved their fingers.

 Here he is squawking. He squawks and coos all the time. Guess I'm 4/4 for chatty kids.

Other things about James: He is a good baby because he has to be. He's got all the entertainment he can handle with his older siblings. Sarah is a great help walking him around to look at things when he gets a little fussy. He smiles at anyone who talks to him. He loves to lay down and kick his legs. He can bring his hands to his mouth but hasn't tried to grab anything; I think that will happen in the next month, if I remember correctly.

He's lost all the hair he was born with except for little on the top and back center. He's rubbed a lot of it off on the back and sides but the top that fell out first is growing in nice and fluffy. It seems lighter but maybe just because it's short. It will be interesting to see what color his hair ends up being. His eyes are very blue.

He continues to be a sleeper with no rhyme or reason. It's still nearly 11 pm before he finally is down for night. I swear the harder I try to get him down earlier, the later and fussier he stays up. I've tried cutting off his naps at 6 then 7 but then he just seems out of sorts later and is harder to get down. I think I'll just go with the flow for another month or two and then try again to mess with his schedule. Some days he takes really long naps (like 2-3 hours) and others they are only 20-40 minutes.

Knock on wood but he's not afraid of people. Yet. I think my other kids had major distrust of everyone by this age but with him, so far so good. 

Erica Turns 3

Usually I start these birthday posts with something like, "I can't believe my baby is 3!" Well not today. I can believe Erica is three. She talks and talks and asks questions and understands everything we say so well that she has seemed three for quite awhile. It's so strange that she was only saying three words at 18 months. Her vocabulary took off Christmas of last year. I like to watch strangers' faces when they ask her questions; there are always a lot of words coming out of a little body.

Her birthday was Sunday so on Saturday we took her to Brick Oven. I didn't take any pictures but I wish I had a photo of her when the servers sang happy birthday. She mostly just ignored them.

Sunday morning she was up at 7 but waited patiently until 8:30 when I woke up (James stays up late so I do too).

She got a Margaret stuffed animal.

I write my kids a book every year on their birthday until they are 5. This year I recreated her favorite book Find the Teddy by taking pictures of her teddy and putting it into an album. She loved it.

She also got a puppy notebook, a flashlight, umbrella, pink plate, pink water bottle and more tracks for her train set.

She got lots of food including Sour Patch Watermelons which was the only thing she asked for.

A couple of months ago I had Erica look through my cake decorating board on Pinterest to pick out a cake for me to make for her. But for weeks she had set her mind on having pink sugar cookies instead of cake. Then on Saturday I asked her if she wanted to help me make the cookie dough and her answer, "Actually, I want cake. I want cake like Maddie" (She had gone to my nieces birthday party the night before.)I had Justin ask her a little while later if she was excited about cookies and she told him too she wanted cake. Allrighty. So after I got an idea of what Maddie's cake looked like, I made her this.

She wanted a pink cake with sprinkles and that's what she got. She even got to dump the sprinkles on.

If I had time to plan, I would have made her the owl cake I've had in mind since her 2nd birthday. Maybe next year. She took Dora fruit snacks to share with her nursery class at church. Then after church she put in the candles.

She's showing how old she is.

And then we had Justin's parents and brothers over for cake and to watch the superbowl. We had meatballs and mashed potatoes, as requested by the birthday girl. She was mostly excited for the birthday hats. They were "the best thing."

Here are a few pictures we took this morning in her new shirt from Nana.

She makes this face when she is skeptical of what you're saying.

And she was done.

And this was her complete outfit. I will give in to just about any pants request when it comes to taking their birthday picture since it won't show and I wanted to remember this lovely combination. Yes, those are socks with her sandals.

Here's another of my favorite outfits. I just hope people at the store know she dresses herself, not me. I like that she had the common sense to pull her socks up to meet her capri leggings. It is February.

And here's a little sampling of her writing. She is practicing her E's and H's and O's.

Here's her birthday interview.