Today was a good day. Seth has been transitioning to his new classroom and this week is his first full-time week, so the drop-offs have been a little sketchy. His new classroom is upstairs, and the teacher who is normally there in the mornings is on vacation. So it has been a bit more of an adjustment than I anticipated. He cried Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning when I left him, but this morning he was fine, back to his old self.
When I went to pick them up this afternoon, they were getting ready to go on the playground and Seth really wanted to play outside. So I indulged them. It's a chance for me to talk to the teachers and see the boys intereact with their friends. When we finally got home, they wanted to play outside some more. It was a beautiful day, so we got out William's bike and Seth's scooter and they got to play outside for a little while. I managed to get the pizza prepared and into the oven while they played outside. Fortunately, our neighbor was out with his son, so he graciously watched the boys while I dashed inside from time to time to bake the crust, put the sauce and cheese on, and then pull it out of the oven before it burned. Even if he hadn't been there, I think I could have pulled it off. I would have had to make the boys get off their bike and scooter for a few minutes and play in the yard until I got back outside. But they would have been okay with that.
Anyway, when the boys were ready to go inside, we decided to play restaurant. First, the boys made their own menus. Then they sat at the table and I brought them the menus and took their drink orders. I brought them their drinks, took their orders, and gave them some crayons so they could color their menus. (This kept them surprisingly busy until I brought their food out. Why doesn't this work at real restaurants?) I brought out their food and then asked if they minded if I joined them. We all ate together (Ed was working late), and then I asked who was going to bus the table when we were done. They both volunteered, but first, I took their dessert orders and brought them ice cream sandwiches since they ate all of their dinner. (William actually ate some salad!) After we were all finished, they cleared the table and put all the dishes in the sink. I was surprised at how much they enjoyed it, and they decided to tell Ed when he got home that we had eaten pizza at a restaurant. It was really cute and it made our night really enjoyable.
Tomorrow, the weather is supposed to be beautiful--highs in the mid-80s, low himidity--so I told the boys we could take the Metro to school. They are super excited about it. Once William starts kindergarten, we won't have as many opportunities to take the train, so I need to take advantage of it when the weather is good! Ed will drop us off in the morning (to save time) and then we'll walk home. Believe it or not, I'm actually looking forward to it!
Finally, Tanika had asked (in her comment on my menu post) how I manage to cook every night. My answer is, I don't! If you look at my menu, hardly any of it is "real" cooking. Quesadillas involves putting a tortilla in a pan and putting cheese and other topping on top and warming it up. It takes 5 minutes, tops. For tacos, browning ground beef (or black beans) and adding taco seasoning takes 10 minutes. For even easier, you can make the base ahead of time and freeze, and then all you have to do is thaw and heat it up. Tonight's pizza was dough in a can, spread out on a pan, bake for five minutes, throw on sauce and cheese, and bake for 10 minutes.
On Tuesday night, I made pork piccata. Tomorrow night is steak. For these kinds of dinners, I prepare the meat ahead of time. I usually buy meat in bulk, so I had gotten a bunch of thin-cut, boneless pork chops. Over the weekend, I took the pork chops and pounded them out into cutlets. When it comes to chicken and pork, cutlets are the way to go for quick and easy meals. They cook super fast and they're versatile. After I had pounded them out, I put five in a freezer bag and threw them in the freezer. They thaw very quickly, too. So for piccata, all five cooked up in less than 10 minutes (I cooked them in two batches) and they sauce took about 3 minutes. Super simple.
A few weeks ago, I had gotten a large package of sirloin steaks. I think there were 6 steaks, and 2 steaks is usually good for one meal for us, so I put 2 steaks in a bag and added marinade and threw that in the freezer. Then I put 2 more steaks in a bag plain. And I cut the last 2 steaks up into thin strips for either stir fry or pepper steak or some other such future meal and threw those in the freezer. A little planning goes a long way!
For next week, the pork schnitzel is a little more labor-intensive because the pork cutlets will need to be breaded. But this is something I can usually rope the boys into "helping" me with. They like being involved and it's more time to spend with them. Once they're breaded, they cook up in just a few minutes.
Of course, it's a HUGE help when Ed is home so he can occupy the boys while I'm cooking. It's also easier on those nights when the boys just want to watch TV for a little while. It's hardest when the boys want to play outside. But as they get older, it's getting easier. There are some nights when the originial plan gets ditched because I just can't do both--I can't cook and do whatever it is that the boys want to do. There are some nights when dinner gets served later than I'd like. But in the end, I feel like I'm doing a good job of balancing my responsibility to feed my family with my responsibility and desire to have quality time with the boys in that short bit of time that we share at the end of the day. Sometimes I wonder if I'm too indulgent with the boys, like today, for example, when they wanted to play outside at school. I could have just said, it's time to go home, and we would have gotten home earlier and maybe it would have been easier to make dinner and play with the boys outside. But when I can, I like to say yes to them.
Anyway, in the end, I made it work today, just like I do every day, just like we all do. One thing I know for sure, things are always changing. Summer is very different than winter. Things now, in our new house, are different than they were a year ago. What the boys will and won't eat changes all the time. Activities come and go and we just have to figure out how to be flexible and consistent at the same time. We're moms and we just make it work.
