Laundry

We are not "save up the laundry" people. We are, "do the laundry as soon as there is enough for a load" people. Thank goodness Mike and I are on the same page with this. I get easily overwhelmed by chaos and large projects, so keeping up works better for me than doing 12 loads on the weekend. This means every day we wash and fold 1-3 loads, but I'm truly not happy until every piece of clothing in the house is clean, save for what we're wearing and the sheets on our beds. Today is a happy day (for the next 2 hrs or so):

Weak sauce?

I'm pretty sure my piece of pizza is too small...

New book on the horizon

Finished "Desert Solataire," and am about to start a new book:

Reunion

This is the face of a 5-yr-old boy who was just told that his BFF in Ohio is coming to stay with us for a couple days next week:

Gussied up for the holidays

For a non-Christian household, we still manage to get gussied up for Christmas.

School lunch. Gagalicious.

I'm a food diva. I make no apologizes. I want clean, responsibly-grown, real food for myself and my family. This is the main reason my kids have taken their own lunches to school since beginning kindergarten. But some mornings are rough, packing two lunches in time for the school bus to come and snatch them. So we recently conceded to allowing them to eat school lunch one day each week. They are ecstatic. And as it turns out, it is SO nice to not have an extra task to accomplish in the mornings. So Mike and I are a tad ecstatic when they choose hot lunch as well. Not to mention that it was getting slightly cumbersome to oblige my kids' insane and ridiculous pickiness and monotony by only offering pb&j or salami sandwiches with a side of fruit, or for Jack (the more adventurous one), a thermos of spaghetti, chili, or tomato soup.

So I dare say I was flirting with the idea of letting them have school lunch more often, when I revisited the lunch menu. Here it is in all its glory:

https://www.waukeeschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Elem-Menu.pdf

Three cycles that alternate by week during the month. For those who didn't open the link above, a synopsis: this week the main entree offerings consisted of a ball park hot dog with fries, mini waffles with sausage, mac and cheese, Tyson popcorn chicken, and a pork tenderloin sandwich (which happens to have an asterisk noting that it "may contain pork." Fabulous.)  On a few of these days a student can choose a sun butter and jelly sandwich in place of the entree, or sometimes a ham or turkey sandwich. This year they also offer an alternate hot lunch option of either salad bar or something called a "Kidzable," which is the school lunch version of a Lunchable. This is popular with Benjamin, as it contains sectioned portions of crackers, cheese slices, a fruit and/or veggie, and a yogurt. I gag that the yogurt options are neon blue or pink, and are "Trix" brand.

The other two weeks work in new entree options like walking tacos made with Doritos, a pretzel and cheese sauce (yes, that's the main entree), mini corn dogs, and Tony's french bread pizza. I should mention two additional things:

1) Kids always have the option of choosing chocolate milk or juice instead of white milk or water.
2) Kids do not get handed a tray with all the food items offered that day on it; Jack tells me that he only takes hot dogs and fries, not the carrot sticks and fruit because they ask him what he wants. Now I'm all about reducing food waste, but one reason I was into the idea of them trying hot lunch was in hopes that if they got food on their plate in the midst of peers, they may be more likely to try something new or formerly unliked. No such luck.

I don't think kids should have this much choice. They don't need chocolate milk every day. That should only be offered as a special treat one day a week. They shouldn't get to choose only fries and no healthy food options. And we shouldn't be pandering to the same, mind-boggling idea that kids will only eat (and should only be offered) mac and cheese, cheese pizza, hot dogs, and french fries. They are getting food at school that matches every kid's menu in every restaurant in this country. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy that our kids back themselves into culinary corners. My kids are no different and I struggle with this every day. I'm just annoyed that the school lunch program is reiterating this issue.

Where is Jamie Oliver when we need him? Come back, Jamie, Come back to the U.S. and take a few more charges at our school lunch program! Please!!!! Otherwise I may be forced to move our family to France for some serious relearning for us all.

Egg nog showdown

I happen to be a lover of egg nog. Those who know me well understand that this can be a tad of an inconvenience for my health when it hits the shelves in early November. This is typically the time of year when I go off of my regular, one cup of morning coffee and switch to espresso mixed with a full cup of steamed egg nog. It beats any egg nog-flavored latte your favorite coffee shop sells, but also adds about 15 lbs come January. SO, this year I've been much better about saving this little indulgence for rare occasions.

I wanted to know, though, when I do indulge, which brand provides the ultimate egg nog flavor? So I set out to compare. Classic AE brand, made right here in Des Moines, Sheeder Cloverleaf Dairy's egg nog, made in Guthrie Center Iowa and Picket Fence Creamery's egg nog, made in Woodward, Iowa.

(*I omitted the Trader Joe's brand because one year I stocked up on 5 cartons of their brand egg nog at the end of the season when Hy-Vee had no AE left on their shelves, and on first taste found it to be absolutely disgusting. All cartons went straight down the drain.
**I inadvertently omitted the Organic Valley brand, which is sad because I had it recently and it was delicious. It would be nice to compare it directly with the others. Still, the ones I have here are all made in Iowa, so I'd probably omit it for that reason alone in the end anyway.)

Sight:   AE's is definitely the most yellow, and the thinnest. Still has bubbles after pouring while the others poured smooth and thick. Sheeder's is very light in color, while Picket Fence's looks quite brown and full of spices. Both Sheeder's and Picket Fence's are quite thick and stick to the sides of the glass when swirled much longer than the AE.

Scent:  AE smells sweet, but not overpowering. Sheeder's smells sweet but also very milky, and dairy-laden. Picket Fence has a sweet, custard smell. Very custardy smelling indeed. 

Taste:  AE has a heavy sweet taste on the tongue that leaves a sugary aftertaste after swallowing.   Sheeder's has a milk/cream forward taste, and the sweetness pops up more after swallowing than when it's in your mouth. It's eggy tasting, but mostly a sweet milky egg, not much spice. The sweetness is less overt and overpowering than AE's.  Finally, the Picket Fence version is the spiciest. It's when when you first drink it, but the strong spice--mostly nutmeg but also some other spice tastes pop out, too--is immensely enjoyable, and gives it more character than the Sheeder's. 

Winner: Picket Fence. I wanted to pick Sheeder's because it comes housed in a returnable glass bottle, which I like quite a bit. But for flavor, the Picket Fence Creamery egg not is superb. In an egg nog pinch, though, I'd buy any of them ;)

Winterized garden, check.

Got the strawberry bed covered with straw, finally.  I wish it would have happened before our multiple days of 10 degrees....

December post-a-thon

By request of my friend Samantha, I'm going to try and post to this blog more often this month. I am not committing to a post a day, but we'll see how well I can do. For today, my confession that I am now purchasing puzzles for myself rather than under the guise of being for the kids. Am I officially old now that I admit I enjoy bird watching and puzzling for fun?

P.S. Okay, in afterthought, maybe I will commit to a post a day in December. I like new challenges after all, and I especially love deadlines. Short-term ones, that is. Not dissertation-like deadlines. {shudder}

Happy Winter!