7QT: A week of rain, cafeteria food, potty training, neighbor boys and one really good hair day

Thanks to Jen Fulweiler for hosting, and for always keepin' it real! :)

1) Cafeteria food.  I grew up in a culturally influenced home.  My father is East Indian and my Mom, a German-American girl from Wisconsin, taught herself how to prepare beautifully colorful, brilliantly flavorful, complicated dishes as a labor of love for my Dad, who felt rather homesick for Indian food once they married and began their home together. We grew up in a very diverse area in South Florida, and Mom later added dishes like Ratatouille and Paella to her repertoire. Hardly anything ever came from a can or a box in my childhood.  We would travel around the world without leaving our kitchen table, and while I didn't love the eggplant then, I can appreciate it now.

I strive to make us fresh, healthful, uncomplicated meals every night (except on weekends when we can be spotted at Chipotle or Dickey's pretty regularly). Historically, our children have not been picky eaters, and we have always been able to set down anything on the table and they will try anything once. But the eldest has suddenly become insanely picky (recently it was "I don't like cheese" all of a sudden, but it's fine on pizza!!!) So after the reminders of being grateful for the food we have, I basically made up my mind I'd try a week of making "cafeteria style" food. The idea was born of a snarky comment at the dinner table from (ahem) me about how the kids would probably eat what I made as long as it came on the signature blue tray from the school cafeteria. I made a chicken pot pie with bisquick mix which got mixed reviews, and a King Ranch Chicken which got the least complaints of all! Maybe my ancestors are rolling over in the graves, but at least my kids are eating!!! (and as an aside, I don't think there is anything wrong with this type of food...I just want my kiddos to be nourished!) :)

2) Potty training - littlest one has been sick this week, and it has been raining every single day, and so I thought this would be a good time for potty training. I've done this twice before and figured it would be cake by now, but it turns out I really don't remember how to potty train a toddler boy anymore.  So we keep watching the episode of Daniel Tiger's neighborhood when Prince Tuesday learns how to go potty.  I love how everything is a song in Daniel Tiger's world, we dig that over here!

3) Moisturizer- I have had some crazy skin splotchiness since my third pregnancy (three years ago!) and I didn't realize I was supposed to be vigilant about sunscreen and I made it worse by being out in the sun with no coverage. I had tried apple cider vinegar, exfoliators and vitamin C and some other natural remedies, but nothing seemed to help.....until this! :)  It's a sunscreen moisturizer with retinol-A and it's really showing improvement.  It was a little more than I like to spend on sunscreen but less than a co-pay or prescription from the dermatologist.


4) Lullaby prayer - I just love this piece Prayer, by Hayley Wesentra.  I am playing it as a lullaby for the children at night.



5) Simplicity parenting - You may remember that I mentioned this briefly few weeks back.  Even though the permission to simplify has always been there, this book honestly feels like a permission slip to escape a rat race that I don't even remember entering. It has been relieving to me that my instincts to keep things simple, the way my childhood was, has been a good one...for now at least. Surely a day will come when we need to encourage/empower the kids to do more, but that day is not today! :)

6) The Wii -  Last weekend, Bronius' laptop had a meltdown and he had to drive to Houston to have some parts replaced. While there, we found an older model of the Wii at a great price, and while both of us have been adamantly opposed to having one, we found ourselves suddenly in line purchasing it.   With all the rain this week, it turns out it was a great time to cave in and buy a Wii. Mario & Luigi have been playing together and having a lot of fun, and the time regulation hasn't been a problem at all. They come home from school, have a snack, knock out their homework and piano practice, and then I allow them one half hour before outside play time. The neighbor boys are usually ringing the doorbell at that point anyway!

                                                                     Sometimes, I don't mind my curly hair. 

7) My good hair day.  These are few and far between, so I try to take a picture of this strange phenomenon when it occurs naturally! I am a low maintenance gal with hair that can be high maintenance, expect for when I let it air dry and go curly like this. But the atmospheric pressure has to be JUST right, or else beware!

And an extra....Seeing the Face of Christ in the Poor. I had an opportunity to talk with one of the coordinators of our local Saint Vincent de Paul society, and even though I trained as a Vincentian myself ten years ago, I realized how much more there was to learn and how much SVdP does nationally and internationally. I did not realize they are almost always among the first responders in a disaster or crisis, right alongside the Red Cross!

Well that's it for me this week! Thanks for stopping by, kind reader, I would love to hear from you!  :)