It’s a Wonderful Dad’s Life

Cooking Sunday

I have really enjoyed the last two weekends immensely. Both weekends, I have had the time to really dive into cooking. This morning I cooked waffles for the family. After lunch, (nothing to speak of) I created two lasagnes with chicken sausage and shiatake mushrooms. That will be for Melinda to cook during the week. For dinner tonight, I am making Coq a Vin with salad, potatoes and fresh bread.  The leftover chicken will be used for a pasta dish tomorrow. Of course I am saving the chicken back so that I can add it to my broth ingredients next time I bake a chicken.

I am also starting to think about Cherries, Strawberries, Blueberries, Raspberries and all the options I have this year to make jam. Looking forward to that as well.

OK, off to blanch the lardons.

Catching Up

So it has been a while since I have talked about what is going on. And because I had such a wonderful morning in bed, I am ready to start filling you in.

Kat

So the big think in Kat’s life right now is the fact that she is playing kick-ball at school and pretty upset about being picked last during the team selections. She is also upset that the team doesn’t let her kick her own balls. So much so that she has asked me to work with her to improve her game. So for the last couple of weeks, she and I have been out front practicing kicking, throwing and catching the ball. And I have to say, she is improving. Whereas at first, she wasn’t able to catch anything, and her kicking was poor at best, now she is pretty good. She catches anything that comes her way, and is getting better at getting under the ball. Her kicking is pretty good, and improving. She could still use some work on her throwing.

The payoff of this work came on Wednesday of this week. She has a kickball class run by the teacher each Wednesday. And unlike the recess games, she is able to play fully and kick. During this game, she was OK when she kicked her ball. And more interestingly, she caught a ball that was hard to catch. The next day, during recess she was picked 3 to last. Kat was very, very excited about the improved placement.

We will be continuing to practice and now that this has happened, Kat is more militant about practicing every day. Yesterday, we practiced for thirty minutes and Kat was upset that we didn’t practice for a couple hours.

During our Wednesday breakfast (Kat and I drop a friend off at school and then go to Pete’s for breakfast on Wednesday until Kat’s class starts), we talked about kick-ball and what she wanted to do. I told her that she basically had three choices:

1. Give up and stop playing-Kat didn’t want to do that.
2. Accept her status and get used to it-Kat didn’t like that idea either.
3. Work very hard to be better than everyone around her so that they would have to accept her-Kat decided that this was the best option.

Did I mention that I am really proud of her?

Will

Will is doing well and continues to be a character. I do see that he is starting to grow up and if he had started Kindergarten where he is today, I am sure he would have done better in school than he has up to this point. That points to the fact that I believe we are making a good decision in having him repeat Kindergarten.

Me

My work is really, really busy. I added scope and members to my team and getting re-organized around these changes has been a pretty hard slog. But we are starting to really get a handle on things. I have also been able to make a key hire that will really help in terms of ensuring everything falls into place. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks, I will be able to slow my workload to a more manageable 50 hours a week.

On a personal level, things couldn’t be better. I am happier and more in control of my emotions. And in fact, I feel like the person I have always wanted to be. I cannot be happier with my decisions. I am not saying I don’t have problems. I am saying that I am able to keep a good perspective on things and not let the problems rule my life. And that helps me deal with the problems more effectively.

Anyway, that is about it for now. Today I have shopping, laundry and kick-ball to attend to. So I better get my day on.

Saturday Morning Wake Up

This morning Melinda let me sleep in late. Past 8 a.m. I woke up with Mischief sleeping on the bed next to me.

Oddly satisfying.

Catching Up

Truth is that I am very busy these days. Mostly, but not only due to work.

So what is going on.

This weekend is a catch up weekend with a lot of cooking thrown in.

Of course cooking is something I love, so I will tell you what I cooked. Last night, Melinda wanted Fettuccine Alfredo. So I took that suggestion and created Penne Pasta with shrimp and cream sauce (alfredo). The variation is that I made the Alfredo a bit thicker by adding a Roux. For lunch yesterday, I made chicken burritos.  This morning I made French toast with left over Italian bread. For lunch I am making Shiatake Mushroom Soup. For Dinner, I will likely go with Mac n Cheese using cheddar, Parmesan and Gruyere cheeses. To help out next week, yesterday I made Eggplant Parmesan and put it in the freezer. Today, I also am making smoothies for the kids. Sometimes I feel like an Italian mother.

Of course I also got the shopping done for the week as well as the laundry. Well most of the laundry. I still need to do the sheets.

Kat was sick most of the week last week with a mild flu. William has a bit of it, but it doesn’t seem to be slowing him down so much.

One thing that is different. Melinda and I talked and she and I decided that we would go to Old Mission after all. Of course the fact that we are making this decision so late and so long after announcing we weren’t going might throw the trip into problem territory in terms of overlapping with others.

Conversations

At William’s school after kindergarten.
Melinda: How was your day?
William: Terrible. Too much work. I only got to play for 12 minutes.

Morning at Home

This morning started off with Mischief running in and jumping up on the bed as Melinda and the kids were getting out of bed and starting their day. So I remained in bed, petting our beloved dog for the next hour to ensure that mischief day started out right.

Once my day did begin, Katherine and I made apple-cinnamon muffins for breakfast. It was fun cooking with Kat although she did end up getting distracted toward the end of the process.

Today Kat has a play date with Sophia. My agenda is pretty quiet, just doing the normal yard work, finishing the laundry and cooking chicken for dinner. Other than that, nap perhaps?

The Physics Show

Melinda purchased tickets to a kids show called the Physic’s Show. It is a interactive demonstration of of cool science tricks. Melinda and the kids will be heading out to do that. I will be staying behind to clean and take care of the house.

Some of My Favorite Kitchen Appliances

Espresso Maker

On the weekends, I make myself one or more perfect lattes. I add a teaspoon of sugar and a bit of ground nutmeg on the top. Pure heaven.

Bread Maker

While we have recently been on a dry spell in making bread, this machine gets quite the workout normally. During the course of a year, I would say we make at least 250 loaves of bread. And this doesn’t count all the bread doughs that get started in the machine. My favorite things to make: English Muffins and Cinnamon Rolls.

Kitchen Aid Mixer

This is my versatile go to appliance to mix my cookies, grind up meat (with the meat grinder attachment), make bread dough. I use this appliance at least once a week.

Meat Slicer

It has been collecting dust as of late, but I do like to pull it out and slice up left over meat and hams purchased at the store for sandwich meats. Save lots of money and get fresher ingredients. What could be bad.

Wheat Grinder

I love being able to take wheat berries and grind them into flour. The taste is incomparable.

Do-Si-Dos

Yesterday, when I got home from work, Melinda let me know that she and the kids bought some girl-scout cookies. William insisted that we get Do-Si-Dos for me. Of course, once he got them home, he had a few. So when I got home, I had a few too. Today, the box is still in the cabinet, with one cookie left. Will saved it for me.

Its times like this when I really know how lucky I am.

Kat

Lately, I have been trying to help Kat better understand how her appearance either helps or hurts her standing with her peers and people she meets.

First, I started enforcing the daily shower rule. Next, I realized that we never taught Kat how to take a shower, so I have been making the point to show her how to wash her hair and use soap and a washcloth to ensure that she is clean and sweet smelling when she is done. Finally, I am making the rule that she needs to dress nicely at least one day a week at school.

The shower thing is pretty much a ritual now. And in the last week, it seems that the hair washing and bath seem to be sticking as well. Just today, she did a pretty good job of washing her hair and only made the mistake of leaving a patch of conditioner in her hair near the back of her skull. I helped her rinse it after the fact in the sink, and told her that she needed to make sure to get all the conditioner out of her hair tomorrow or I would need to send her back in to the bath to rinse it out. She took that well and is starting to like being clean and neat each day.

Dress, well that is another matter.

On Wednesday, during our time at Peet’s (Kat and I have a weekly Peet’s date before school on Wednesdays), we discussed that I wanted her to dress nicely to school one day a week. We agreed that that day would be Thursday since she doesn’t have athletic things on that day. So Yesterday, while she was getting breakfast, I pulled out a sweater dress, leggings and shoes.

You would have thought I thrust a dagger into her heart.

For the next thirty minutes, she argued, cajoled, yelled, cried and generally let me know that this was not to her liking.

And when I was dropping her off at school, she did not want to get out of the car. When she finally got out, she was crying from anger and frustration.

When I returned home from work, Kat came to me and told me that she figured out how to hide the dress. She demonstrated how she hid the dress under her jacket so that she appeared to be wearing only a T-shirt. I had to give it to her for her ingenuity.

She and I then took the dog for a walk and I took the time to ask her about her friends and why she was so insistent on not wearing nice clothes.

Nobody else dresses up, she stated.

Now I have seen what all the other girls wear so I knew that not to be true and stated as much.

Boys always wear jeans and T-shirts, she stated flatly.

Ah, so now we are getting somewhere.

This is likely true, I admitted. Are you trying to dress like the boys?

Yes.

So we started discussing how boys dress and how girls dress and how people judge you by your appearance and that I really just wanted her to ensure that she was dressing in a manner that gave her credibility with her peers and teachers.

We agreed that she would continue to wear “nice” clothes to school. We agreed that one day a week, she needed to dress nicely to school. We agreed that that one “nice” outfit would never again be a dress.

Perhaps we are heading in the right direction.