Breakfast Confessions

I love breakfast. I believe breakfast is an important start to every morning--my kids rarely miss it. I would say never miss it, but once in a while someone refuses to get out of bed and get dressed in time to eat. I believe that if the kids eat a good breakfast then their brains are "charged" for school, so to speak. So after a great summer of cold cereal sales I announced to the kids that there would be no more cold cereal on school days. Initially, we were all excited about it. I mentioned it to a clerk at a grocery store once and she said to me "So what do you feed them for breakfast?" in a very puzzled tone. Because there are some people in America who are totally missing out--cold cereal is NOT the best breakfast food!!! We would have cream of wheat, oatmeal (sometimes with blueberries, nuts, strawberries, cinnamon,etc.), oat bran, pancakes, waffles, pancakes, puffed pancakes, biscuits, eggs, muffins, frittata, coffee cake, low-sugar peach or pear crisp or cobbler, french toast, omelets, fruit,......... There are so many choices!! Once in a while I will even make bacon or sausage, turkey bacon or sausage if I have it. Seriously, what's not to love about breakfast? I wish we could eat breakfast most nights for dinner!!

So why am I now serving cold cereal for breakfast? Because Albertsons just had a kickin' sale on General Mills cereals? No, but it really helps. Because the kids started whining that they don't get cold cereal like EVERYONE else they know? No, because I'm not the sort of mom that cares about that stuff. They do complain, by the way--I like to think that's totally normal. But I don't take it too seriously because once I told them they could have a donut for breakfast and someone complained about that. It was funny and I laughed and from then on I don't listen to anyone who complains about any of my food because seriously, if you complain about donuts for breakfast then you are just complaining to complain, right? Back to the topic--I started serving cold cereal for breakfast again because my waistline is more important than charging my kids' brain, of course. You can always tell if our family is having great breakfasts when my clothes start getting a little tight. Because even though I try to use applesauce instead of vegetable oil, and sugar-free syrup, etc. I just do not have the self-discipline to exercise portion control when it comes to breakfast foods! So now I am trying to make them something I consider decent for breakfast once or twice a week.

I was pondering my breakfast obsession this morning when my kids opened 3 boxes of cereal so 3 kids could have a "toy car" from the box and I didn't get upset. Because I was 10 seconds from telling them all to pick a box so everyone would have a car because I hate contention in the morning. Somewhere in the world at least one cereal executive is chuckling and/or smirking and thinking "Suckerrrr!". I am a morning person and a breakfast person and yes, I am willing to let everyone open a box of cereal to have a toy to preserve the meal/day. And seriously, if Christmas were next month I would go back to the store and pay full price for a box of cereal (with a toy inserted, of course) for each kid and wrap them and put them under the tree. Because the stupid little .25 cent toy in there is apparently sooooooo superior to all the other much more expensive toys they own. They have been racing those stupid cars all over the walls and floors for the last 20 minutes and are asking to take them to school. So come November, please remind me that I do not need to spend more than $4 for each kid for Christmas--they only need a box of cereal. With a toy.

Slow Morning

This morning I woke up at 4 AM to start laundry and study scriptures and write in my journal, etc. And still we were running late this morning. Usually on Wednesdays, I take the three youngest kids to the neighbor and she watches them while I play piano for the honors choir at the school. Today everyone was happy, things were peaceful, but we just weren't all ready when it was time to leave. So I told Et that we had to go and he could stay with the others until they had finished breakfast, make sure everyone brushed their teeth and had their backpacks and then go to the neighbor's house. I was happy to be walking down the hallway at the school when Et saw me and greeted me. This is really news, because he generally ignores me and if he does greet me it is just "Hi" followed by a speedy exit. But today he stopped me and asked about my morning and we visited for a few minutes and he gave me a report of the morning and everything had been perfect. Then I saw Iy walking down the hall towards me. Surprisingly she looked pretty happy. I say surprisingly because last night when I was at the store she bit Et on the back because he took something she thought was hers but N thought was his,..... I'm sure stuff like this only happens at my house. Anyway, Iy is walking down the hall towards me with a smile on her face. And most shocking of all--a HEADBAND IN HER HAIR. She combed her hair!! WOW!! They had a great morning! Iy does not like to comb, have combed, or decorate her hair in any fashion. And she had her backpack on. With all her stuff. I was so impressed!!

Then I came home. I drove up the driveway and noticed something amiss. The front door was wide open and the furnace was running full blast. All the lights were left on. But progress is progress and I'm not looking for perfection so I still count Et's work this morning successful! Besides, I'm sure he'll say he was not the last one out......

Friendly Letter, By Iy

Dear JD.,
I am vire sory
i am not maring
you. I like you.
I am your frid.
I noo that you love
me.

love,
Iy.

This was a homework assignment Iy completed today--I read it 5 minutes ago and I'm still laughing.

Iy and Logan Kissing in a Tree...

Not really, of course, although I just read the kids my last blog post and the comments and Iy was really excited to hear she could marry Lu's boy Logan. She smiled, covered her face with both hands, and giggled. Almost maniacally. Good think Logan lives in another state. I'm thinking Lu and I should give up our quest to be neighbors until the kids are in college.

Opera House Glove and Caplet GIVEAWAY!!!!

Opera House Glove and Caplet GIVEAWAY!!!!

He's Smarter Than We Think

Since Christmas the kids ask nearly daily to have a fudgsicle left by Grandpa in our freezer. And just about daily mom and dad say no. N has figured out a solution. Break into the freezer and sneak one or two? No, that leads to trouble. He's smarter than that. Today he came to me with two fudgsicles and said, "You want one Mom?" as he dangled it in front of my face. How can I say no to that? So N and I had treats together. Shhh, don't tell the other kids about his cleverness!

Weekend Fun

We had a fun weekend and a few events were worth blogging:

Saturday we went sledding with an old college friend, Lu and her family. The kids had a BLAST! Ev was a jump master--she loved them! Until her last run when she went down the jump and took some major air. She was riding a little plastic sled and when she came down she didn't come back up. Her backside is a bit bony and she came down pretty hard and got the wind knocked out of her! She's still a little sore. Et also had fun, but had to have a trip to the InstaCare. Thanks to Uncle W and Aunt A for watching the kids for us! Lucky for us he didn't break anything, but has a bruised bone for which he proudly wears a shoe on that foot because it 'helps'. Or so he says. All around the house yesterday he was one shoe on and one shoe off--whatever works! Iy was not quite the daredevil the others were, but she went off the jump and did some fast sledding. When N went down the hill his head bounced all around and made me laugh. It was a fun day! Then mom and Lucinda took family names to the temple and had cards printed. FYI--we have a ton of temple work we need help with!! Mom and Lu also got to go out to dinner and browse a bookstore. It's fun to get out!

Last night after dinner we all watched a movie together, Follow Me Boys. It was fun to all sit down and watch the movie and we could all hear everything and no one was climbing all over anyone else. I remember wondering if that would EVER happen. The kissing was the best part. Every time Lem would kiss Vida three kids would GROAN and one kid would pump their fist in the air and say, "YES!" "I LOVE the kissing!" Can you guess who that was? Of course it was Iy. Note to self--watch out for Iy when she starts dating. Which reminds me of something that happened before I started blogging. Iy came home from Kindergarten one day quite proud that she had kissed a boy at school. So we had a talk about how you can't kiss until you are much older and perhaps married and never in school. So then she was obsessed with getting married and often came home depressed because there was one boy in the neighborhood her age and two other girls had already decided to marry him and he COULDN'T have 3 wives and so what was she supposed to do? I suggested that when she was OLDER, probably in college, she would meet someone from somewhere else. So a few days later she had decided she could marry cousin D. Then I had to tell her you can't marry a cousin. She was getting pretty frustrated at this point--why couldn't she marry D? So I had to explain a little bit and then she said that none of that would matter anyway because D was adopted,... So I just gave a flat veto--"because I said so!" And we talked about how you don't worry about getting married until you go to college. I also explained that Mom and Dad met at college and she was stunned. She had imagined that we had grown up together and then gotten married. So now she is patiently waiting. And a good thing, too, because apparently kissing looks like good fun for her!!