Family Picture May 2022

Family Picture May 2022

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

March

Well, two weeks into March, and what have we to show for it...

not much.

And no pictures. I guess that's why I haven't posted, there's no news. No news is good news. We continue to be safe and healthy and keep moving forward. Life is short, time goes fast.

One new development in our house has been the implementation of "Teaching Kids to Make Breakfast" program. One morning as I was making breakfast for the kids, Savanna wandered upstairs and sat down at the table expecting to be served like royalty, no offers to help, no efforts to get herself food, and then Weston and Fiora came up and did the same thing, just sat at the table waiting to be handed their plates. I had a vision of ten years into the future, of her at age 20 coming up the stairs and sitting down at the table expecting to be served and I almost became ill. I thought, "What am I doing? I'm reinforcing my children to be dependent on me and expect to be served. This will never do." But what to do?
I stopped buying cold cereal a while ago because 1) its NOT good for you, 2) my kids don't even like it, they complain when they "have to have cereal." So just going on strike and letting the kids fend for themselves, which I did the next morning to see what would happen, results in ramen noodles and PBJ's. So I decided the kids were going to learn how to make breakfast. Every morning one of them takes a turn at being in charge. The child chooses what they would like to make, I am their assistant and make sure they don't hurt themselves, but only instruct and never take over. Weston started, he made french toast, it was a little tricky for him flipping them over in the skillet, but otherwise he did a fine job and was very proud of himself. Savanna took the next morning and made custom-ordered omelets for each of us, Wes and Fi had ham and cheese omelets, I had onion, pepper, and spinach omelet, and Jared had an egg white only veggie omelet. Savanna served herself last, with an everything omelet. Fiora woke up early on a school day and made pancakes and fruit. She is also learning how to make a great fruit smoothie, which she has every night because she is 10 days away from ending her dessert-free contract and needs something sweet to get her through. This morning was Weston's turn again, and he made scrambled eggs and toast, with a tangerine on the side. The kids are loving learning how to cook each morning, they all have their next meal in mind and I just need to buy the ingredients! Its not only teaching them a skill, its boosting their self esteem!

Jared has been on a "no-cholesterol" contract for all of 2012 trying to get a "good deal" on life insurance payments on a higher policy. He had his physical examination for his life insurance "refinancing" this very morning. He has shown amazing iron will since January 2nd, eating only low or zero cholesterol foods and exercising regularly and taking fiber and vitamin supplements trying to reach his goal of weight loss and low cholesterol reading. He lost 20 pounds and his readings were stellar. So it paid off, literally! His brothers all have bets on how quick he will gain it all back, the first thing he did to celebrate was go out for hamburgers. But it was a major accomplishment nonetheless!

1 comment:

Cami said...

Wow! I like your breakfast program. I have scheduled days for everything. I don't love cereal, but I am against my kids LOSING any foods, so they are forced to eat it twice a week. They get something syrupy twice. We've only started making them get their own CEREAL at this point, but I'm also getting to the point where they can get their own toaster waffles and yes, even actually cut them. It's amazing. Not Jane, of course, she's the queen.

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