Precious Children

Sitting at the dinner table tonight. I can tell this is going to be a long week. DH having trouble with his knee again; bursitis or something. Not sure. More appointments and poking/prodding in the very near future while DH works in quite a bit of pain. DD is excited about a field trip tomorrow, DS#1 just now seems to be hitting the terrible twos or will it be tumultuous threes??? Heh heh...time will tell on that one....we shall see.....DS#2 is climbing and then standing on everything with a victorious look like he just conquered Mount Everest each time. So, we sit down to have baked potatoes with broccoli, cheese (not for the DD and DS#1 -- they don't like it if its not highly processed), some bacon bits and "Salad Toppins" (look them up in your groc. store -- crunchy things to put on salads & stuff). I quickly cooked the broccoli in the mic and then semi-cooled them to cut up for the kids. I found little bugs in my broccoli. Dead bugs, but bugs none-the-less. Luckily, I hadn't served it yet. At first, I thought it was just one or maybe two, then upon closer examination, I realized it was in all the broccoli that was on the plates I was just about to serve the kids. So, I decided to chuck that, saving just a bit in case the entire bunch that I purchased yesterday was ruined. Either I bought organic for $1.99 on sale, or the pesticides that they no doubt use for the non-organic doesn't work. Either way, not too pleased at this point. Cooked up some more, there were no bugs. Yea! So, without nary a word to the children, I served the bug-free broccoli. I was planning on waiting for DH to get home from work before eating, but then upon smelling the delicious aromas from the kids' food, I decided to go ahead and eat with them. So after preparing their plates, I started doing mine.

Ya know how they say hindsight is 20/20? Why do they say that? You can never go back and change whatever you've done wrong anyways. Like putting the bacon bits and Salad Toppins on the table where a (almost) three year old is present....first came the bacon bits -- just about 2 Tablespoons, I'd say, onto a single ice cream scoop sized potato. OK, not too bad. Just know that you are gonna have to eat all your potato, DS#1! So, do I take into consideration the Salad Toppins are now fair game? No. I turn back around and continue preparing my potato. DD says, "Mom, look what DS#1 just did!" Now, on top of the bacon bits, there are about 1/4 cup (maybe more) of Salad Toppins. AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
I took off as much as I could and put back. They were dry, and he didn't have any sauce or anything on his potato and well, there was quite a heap of them, so I could pick out the potatoes.

I sat down to eat. The kids were doing a lot of bickering this afternoon. And attempted to carry it on at the table. I just tried to eat and tune them out. It was nothing serious they were fighting about. I tried to carry on a conversation with DD about what she did in school today, and she said "all I can remember is not taking out a white card." Which is good that she didn't get into trouble, but she's not going to school to narrowly avoid the school system's discipline... LOL! As voices raise to a deafening height, I find myself staring at one of my pictures on the wall. And my thoughts start to wander...It has two ff's in it. That's like fortissimo. (a musical term, for those of you who don't know) I wonder if I can shrink myself and just disappear into those ff 's? Then, I could be really loud, like fortissimo. Maybe I could even be fortississimo...hmm. Then I wouldn't have to listen to their silly fighting... Yeah! I know! It'd be like DH & Twig going through the holes in the wall in their boredom at the guy's house! {Note: In between the fun and silliness of the goings-on with DH and his roommates, there was much boredom -- this was an inside joke developed during one of those times}. I was instantly snapped back to attention when I noticed DD's plate looking real shiny. She was dumping on the salt. She has done this before, and we have made her try a bite with all the salt. You'd think she would remember, but I guess she had a brain fart. Oh well, we all have them. They can't be helped. So I look across the table to DS#2, (who is watching everything that's going on and taking mental note, no doubt) and say "What am I gonna do with your brother & sister?" He looks at one sibling, then the other and back to me and smiles real big. -- He can't wait to join them! DS#1 says "I have a idea!" "What?" I said. "Let's go someplace." slightly chuckling, I said, "OK. Where?" DS#1 "On 'Cation!" That really brought the much-needed laughter out of me! "Where do you want to go on vacation, DS?" "To town!" (Now, I am really laughing!) Sissy said "Let's go to Florida so we can go to Disney World!" DS then said "No, I wanna go to town and watch baseball! Far far away!" They excitedly rambled on their plans. All in all, it was a fun dinnertime.

Thank you, God, for loaning me some of your most precious, prized and beloved possessions! They are a treasure from heaven and I love them dearly.