Peas and Shadow Puppets

Okay so what do peas and shadow puppets have in common? For the rest of the world I cannot speak but as for me and my house, absolutely nothing. I say that now but don't be surprised if something creeps up in the middle of this post. Right now however, I cannot think of a way to tie them in. That might be a fun way to blog - just throw out a couple of random items and then put some thoughts together. hmmmm. That is not what I am doing tonight, sorry to disappoint.

I was in a parent meeting for Andy last month and the presenter was discussing food. She had a lot of great points and things that I decided I needed to incorporate. She also had some ideas that I wasn't crazy about in regards to going vegetarian. Suffice to say I don't think that is truly the healthiest diet plan out there. Anyhow, a couple of things that she mentioned was introducing kids to different foods as well as preparing a menu. Two days ago I started to pen out a menu. It was more or less exploring some food options with the kids in order to populate a calendar with menu items. I have yet to populate the calendar but I do have a great meal list now. I went shopping yesterday and was amazed at how much that simple list helps. I am excited about completing this project as I believe it will help lighten my daily load quite a bit. I will have a plan each day and that would be nice.

In regards to introducing new foods tonight I did just that with, you guessed it, peas. I grew up loving peas. They are a favorite. Rachel didn't much care for peas and so the kids have rarely been exposed to them. Tonight I introduced peas. I was expecting that the peas would be rejected and they were. I had however established a rule that anyone who finished their peas would qualify for a special treat later. After a small challenge with Jack eating his I managed to commit him to eating 8. I explained that 8 did not qualify the special treat and so while complaining about it he kept putting peas in his mouth. Great. Andy required a little help but he got his down. Natty put up a bit of resistance but finally came through. So off we went to get frosty's for the kids.

We drove over to the football stadium and the kids tackled their frosty's. After that we drove over to the Little Brick House. Natty wanted to see it. The kids trash needed to be thrown away and that would be convenient. Natty asked if she could get out and run around. I told her she could and naturally the boys followed. I sat in the car and watched them. I kept the headlights on and they ran around the yard. There was races around the house, hiding in the trees,a pine cone war and also a lot of fun with their shadows on the big white fence. I was amused with how amused they were playing with their shadows. It was neat to see something so simple bring so much joy. I did tease them a bit by turning off the headlights but quickly learned my lesson. Andy marched back to the car and gave me a tongue lashing. It was great.

Well, no connection between the two. Sorry, my creative juices just are not flowing tonight. Our prayers are with the people of Japan today. They had a major earthquake hit and it was followed by a tsunami. I don't have all the details but it looked rather devastating.