Fine Dining

"Did you have dinner with that gross guy?"

Since we're on the topic of dad & dinner......

As you know, I'm no longer home four nights a week. Usually I try to have something in the oven or the crock pot so as to lighten Justin's new load. Today, however, I left the house at 9:30 this morning and didn't return until nearly 10:00 tonight. At around 4:00 I realized I had nothing planned or prepared. So, I sent Justin a text saying he was kind of on his own as far as feeding the kids.

This was his idea:

Oh how I love this man!

PTSD in it's Finest

"Love and fear. Everything the father of a family says or does must inspire one or the

other. "

Right after we moved into our house we started having issues with certain things. One of them was the oven door. It got too hot and because the glass wasn't tempered (or something like that) the glass in the oven door shattered into a billion different pieces. Not a big deal. They replaced it free within a week and the matter was soon forgotten. Or so I thought.

As most of you know I started grad school this week. They let me in on the condition that I pass the RIGHT test this time. Which by a miracle from heaven I did. Only 11 of us got in. Classes are Monday through Thursday nights from 5:30 to 9:10. The only one I was really worried about was Carter. The other two would barely notice I was gone. Sure enough, after the first night, Carter was calling out my name in his sleep. This broke my heart! I slept on his floor that night....just so he'd know I was still here. How was he going to last all summer without me??!!

Wednesday I took him to lunch and we had a special day together. At lunchtime he asked me how long school was going to take. I told him it would be over before he knew it. I told him Justin would be here with him.

"Dad can take good care of you right? "

"No! Don't you remember??!! He puts too many batches of tater-tots in and explodes the oven!"

We've been in this house three years now, which would make Carter only 3 when this happened. Apparently he's still suffering from PTSD. No wonder he won't eat tater-tots.

Safely Gathered In

"The best food storage is not in welfare grain elevators but in sealed cans and bottles in the homes of our people. What a gratifying thing it is to see cans of wheat and rice and beans under the beds or in the pantries of women who have taken welfare responsibility into their own hands. Such food may not be tasty, but it will be nourishing if it has to be used."

My post about hoarding brought up an interesting conversation with a friend.

Don't mormons "hoard" food?

The word "store" is a much better choice and storing and hoarding are two totally different concepts.

Yes, I have a pantry full of food. Yes, my family could live for 9 months off of what's there. We cheated and bought 3 months worth of meals ( 2 a day for the 5 of us) from a company that freeze dries everything. The beauty of it is that you can store a ton of food in a very small space. It's good too. We sampled some before we bought it. It's a bit more expensive than the traditional methods of food storage, but we used our tax return last year and just got it done. When we added it to what we already had, it became about 9ish months worth of food. I suppose it might seem like I'm just as crazy as a hoarder, but it's very different, trust me. Hoarders are ashamed. I'm quite proud of what we've accomplished. If and when tradgedy strikes, come on over. We'll share.