Mother’s Day
Before motherhood finally came my way, Mother’s Day used to
be such a painful experience for me.
Happily the pendulum has swung to the other end and this year was such a
blissful day. It was simple but
happy. It started out with breakfast in
bed which Zana helped make – and eat. A gorgeous
“Christina” orchid lei, pot of happy mums, and handmade cards from the kids
made the morning very special. Off to
church where the youth took over teaching all the Primary classes so the women
could all attend Relief Society for a change.
The bishopric came through brilliantly with roses and heart shaped
gourmet brownies for all the women in the ward.
But rewind to Saturday when the kids asked what I wanted as
a gift, my reply was a whole day with no fighting, arguing, or whining. I realized that in order for my wish to be
granted, I couldn’t just sit back and allow them to govern and entertain
themselves but I had to stay actively engaged with them. So I did my part and we kept busy but relaxed
all day. There were several times Zana
had to take some deep breaths to not give in to Zeth’s prodding
for a response and I was so proud she did it.
They were so well behaved and mannered all day right up until 8:00p when
Zeth needed a bath and Zana asked to join him.
Water toys gave way to splashing which gave way to a water fight which
ended up with a ball in the eye and Zana retaliating. Guess I should have moved bed time up to 8:00p. Other than that we had a very successful day.
To reward them for their efforts, Monday morning I made them
breakfast in bed. Crepes are a special
breakfast event normally reserved for birthdays but I thought they deserved a
reward for making Sunday so happy. It
was a splendid start of the week.
Lentils
One of my husband’s favorite meals as a result of his
mother’s cooking is lentils & rice.
Even with the sausage, carrots, & onions mixed in the thick soup
served over rice, it’s not the most exquisite of meals but it’s one of his
favorites because that is what he was raised on. Monday evening he prepared a pot of lentils big
enough to feed his family of 14 (well maybe not anymore with 9 men in the
family), which was more than enough food for our little family of four. I think we’ll be eating lentils for a
week. Sadly, our children have never
liked lentils in the least so as dinner began, so did the complaints and
requests for additional options. Ramond
was quickly done eating and busy with other things so that left me to make sure
the kids ate dinner, got some nutrition other than the grapes they were packing
away like chipmunks, and learned to appreciate the food they have. Hard line mommy night. I tried every tactic, “the Anderson kids love
lentils!”, “OK, I’ll put soy sauce on the rice but you have to eat the lentils
too”, “eat your lentils & rice or go straight to bed, it’s your choice”,
“look, sausages are like hot dogs – they’re cousins in fact”. I wasn’t making much progress.
Realizing threats & force would not end up in a pleasant
evening for anyone; I decided to attract the bees to the flowers rather than
dumping soup on their heads. So I came
up with an incentive plan, we needed to go return some videos at the library
after dinner so I finally gave them a 10-minute timeline and said if they
finished their bowls in that amount of time, we would go get ice cream after
the library.
It was as if someone just started a pie eating contest at
the state fair. I’ve never seen Zana
shovel food as fast. She was holding her
nose so she didn’t have to taste the food but downing huge olive-green scoops
all the same. She finished her 10-minute
bowl with 5-minutes to spare. Zeth
meanwhile was having a hard time turning the corner on his decision whether the
ice cream was really that worth it. I
think he only ate about 4 bites total but as time was winding down and I had to
decide if he was making enough progress I had to also factor in how Zana would
feel after finishing her bowl if he didn’t do the same and still got the treat.
So I delegated the decision and said if Zana thought he did
a good enough job, he’d get an ice cream too.
Tough spot to put her in, I know, but she didn’t seem too worried. She took out a notepad and scribbled a large
number on it. As time expired and he was
still working on swallowing his last mouthful, she held up the notepad and
proudly declared he had earned an “8” and that an 8 out of a possible 10 is
still a passing grade. The law of mercy
in action. They both passed the test and
you never saw two happier kids with their McDs sundaes. I was so relieved that the bed time ritual of
brushing, changing, & reading went smoothly and everyone went to sleep
happy. Until the next time we try to
feed them lentils of course…
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