It is a running joke in our home and among our friends that the Parkers have cereal for supper more often than any family in the neighborhood. The joke is really directed at me and my lack of ability to carry out a plan to make a supper meal. I have good intentions. I purchase meat with every desire to make a meal out of it. However, here’s how it tends to go down:
6:30 am: I take the meat out of the freezer and set on the counter.
6:31 – 8:45 am: Spend the next 2 + hours making lunches, showering, feeding kids breakfast, drinking coffee, yelling at kids to hurry up so we aren’t late for school, walking to school and walking home with my 3 year old in tow.
8:46 am: Head downstairs to get the slow cooker to get dinner started. Phone rings, so I come back up.
9:25 am: Hang up the phone, check email and head back downstairs. 3 year old calls out that she needs to “go pee!” Come back up. Notice one (or maybe all) of the boys “missed” the toilet in the morning so I wash the bathroom floor. Check email. Check facebook. “Like” a bunch of witty status updates from my friends.
10:00 am: Make some needed website changes to a customer’s site. Phone rings again. While on phone receive urgent text from husband. His truck is dead.
10:45 am: 3 year old wants snack. While getting snack I notice the meat on counter and head back downstairs to get the slow cooker. Step in something sticky at bottom of stairs. I go into laundry room to get wet rag. Clean up sticky mess. Open the washing machine to throw wet rag in, notice a washed load that didn’t get switched. Open dryer and see load waiting to get put away. Take dry clothes out, set on deep freezer, put wet clothes in dryer, Grab load of towels and get wash going again. Check email – respond to stuff and look up clever Martin Luther King quote for my facebook status.
11:30 am: Three year old has to pee again. Now she wants to wear a dress. In her room I notice a half eaten granola bar on the floor. Pick it up. Get the vacuum. Clean her floor. Clean all other bedrooms & hallway. Notice toys all over living room preventing vacuum capability. Pick up toys and put them away. Find chocolate milk spilled on small boy’s sheets. Pull sheets from bed. Check email. Get distracted by news of Taco Bell founder’s death… read a bunch of articles related to nachos.
12:30 pm: Three year old wants lunch. Notice meat on counter. It’s now thawed so I put it in fridge. Hand 3 year old a cold hot dog, bowl of carrots & yogurt. Head downstairs to get slow cooker. Notice laundry room door open and a load of laundry sitting on deep freezer. Carry it up and put it away. Take another load down and switch everything. Check email. Remember I have book club tonight. Call husband to remind him. Check email again.
1:30 pm: Three year old calls out that she’s spilled her soda. Soda? Clean up mess she made from boosting an open can of pop from the counter. Get three year old some juice, granola bar and raisins for snack.
2:00 pm: Time to start think about going to pick boys up from school. I remember that my oldest boy has tutoring after school. Drats! Car has no gas. Stop for gas on the way.
2:30 pm: Pick up kids, drop son off at tutoring. Go to post office to mail Christmas cards to our parents (yes, in January), pick up milk from convenience store and then get coffee from Tim Horton’s.
3:45 pm: Pick son up from tutoring. Go home. Kids ask for snack. Open fridge and notice – THE MEAT! Too late for slow cooker now. Plan to do a stir fry instead. Give kids snack and check email. Phone rings: call from my mom. Spend 10 minutes wrestling with Polly Pocket and her ridiculous rubber clothes. Three year old is happy.
4:45 pm: Husband calls – reminds me that we have to pick him up from work. (truck is still dead). Load everyone in van. Drive to the office – drive back home.
5:35 pm: I remember that oldest boy has piano at 6 pm and I have book club at 7 pm. No way can I make stir fry and have everyone eat it in 10 minutes.
Cereal anyone?
