Sweet Potato Souffle and Gang Fights, a Long Weekend
It is 1:45 in the morning and I just finished making Sweet Potato Souffle for Peanut's Thanksgiving Feast at her preschool (later) in the morning.
This weekend has been hectic. The last three months have been hectic, but I think this may just be the shape of things to come. I suppose I need to get used to it and give in to a caffiene addiction, something I have managed to avoid all these years.
Last week both my children were sick, and I was a little sick, then to add insult to injury, my son started sprouting a new tooth.There is nothing more pitiful than a baby whose nose is too stuffed up to nurse for comfort. He got a nasty ear infection in the process, which ruptured Wednesday and then again Thursday night, leaving him grumpy and clingy and hurting, poor little guy. By Friday, I was worn out, my shoulders hurt from toting 25 pounds of baby-man for days on end.
When the Naturalist (which is how I have decided to refer to my husband, because he is one, lol) got home from work we made a Wal Mart run. Along with groceries for us, I needed to get ingredients for that sweet potato souffle i mentioned before. Months ago, I bought a boxed sweet potato casserole mix there - maybe Betty Crocker? - because they were featuring it and I like to try new things. I'd give it maybe a 2.5 out of five stars, the texture was more like boxed mashed potatoes than sweet potatoes, it was pretty bland and not that much simpler to make than a homemade one. However, I was going to settle because I didn't want to take the time to gather all the other ingredients and I figured 'These are three year olds...are they really going to care?'
After scouring the store, I couldn't find the boxed mix anywhere. Dammit. This meant that 1) I would have to make the real thing and 2) I was going to have to come back to the madhouse again this weekend because I wasn't sure what ingredients I needed. It can't just be easy, right? Best laid plans and all that.
By the way, let's rewind two weeks to where I had my husband to sign me up to bring pumpkin pie to this feast. I was just going to get a frozen one and some Kool Whip and be done with it. We were told the list would be on the table Friday morning, so I asked him to leave early to take Peanut to school knowing if I didn't get on the list ASAP, all the easy things would be taken. Then he gets into a battle with Peanut over taking medicine, leaves 15 minutes late and pie is gone. Does he call me from the school to tell me what is left? No. He just calls from the road afterward and says "Pumpkin pie was taken but there are some other things on the list..." Dammit again! By the time I got there to pick up the Pea, ham, turkey, canned peas and sweet potato souffle were all that remained.
As much as I long for admiration in this great mom-petition, I wasn't about to make the meats with Thanksgiving just days away. And, as much as I wanted something easy, I wasn't about to send my daughter in with two pitiful cans of peas - no kid wants to be the one holding the veggies! So that left souffle. Sweet potatoes it is.
A quick fast forward across my weekend. Friday after the kids were in bed we began painting the bonus room. 20x25 feet with a 10 foot ceiling - it was a project. We were up till 2 working on it. We have 12 guests coming to stay between Dec 5th- 9th because of the Nutcracker, so we are trying to snazzy up the joint.
Saturday I held a YA autumn craft event at the library from 12-2. We made dream catchers for Native American History Month, and little beaded Indian corn pins and I brought food. You always bring food for YA events. I was expecting four teens and nine came, which was great. There were even two new guys, Jamal and, (I swear he told me this was his name) Starzan. Then I zoomed home and got Pea into her ballet outfit because from 3:30-4:30 she had a rehearsal for the Nutracker. Dinner/Bath/Bedtime and then more bonus room painting, this time till 1:30 in the morning.
Sunday ,Peanut had a birthday party to go to, 35 minutes away. The home was lovely and about 100 feet off the water on Lake Sinclair but the mom was a pretty bad hostess and the child tore through his massive pile of gifts like a badger on crack not even stopping to say thanks or read cards.
Which takes us to tonight. After the D/B/B routine, I was finally going back to WM to get the sweet potato stuff. Instead, I fell asleep in Peanut's bed after stories. At 10:45 the naturalist wakes me up and I wander to the bonus room trying to get lucid and find my shoes. I fall asleep sitting up on the couch. Then we need to sneak back and give Tiny Baby his ear drops and antibiotic and while comforting him afterwards...I fall asleep in his bed. The naturalist finally comes in and says "Are you trying to not make this casserole??" Hey now. I am tired, ok??
I drag ass out of bed and put on shoes, lamenting my lot in life and feeling intensely grumpy. My man isn't exactly sympathetic..."You could have done this earlier in the weekend" he says, as though I have just lain on a settee drinking chablis and reading gossip magazines for the past 48 hours. So I pick a fight with his highness the king of ingratefulness about where he put one of my bookshelves after we painted and then, I leave.
I cannot imagine what I looked like to people in WM. I was in grubby sweat pants and a UGA sweatshirt and no bra. My hair was all spiked up on one side of my head from all the sleeping I'd been doing. I hurried around grabbing the things I needed for the souffle, checked the list...Done!...then remembered we needed some lightbulbs. I turned out of an aisle and guess what was on the outset at the end...the freakin' instant sweet potato casserole crap!! Gah. I swear, this is so my lot in life. I looked at it for a second and was like 'F it. I am making the real thing now.'
When I go to leave there are a ton of thuggy-looking folks hanging out near the checkout lanes and I start wondering what is going on. I pay for my items and walk to the door where the white-haired greeter-lady who looks to be about two years older than dirt stops me and says "I wouldn't go out there yet. A bunch of those folks just ran out the door..." She steps to the sliding doors and says "Oooh yes. I need to call security - there's a gang fight right out there."
WHAT?? You have got to be kidding me. We live in a fairly rural area, so this was a little unexpected. I glance out and sure enough there probably 35 young adults crowded around a group of girls whaling on each other. They are about 15 feet from my car. There is a lot of yelling and people texting their friends and taking pics with their camera phones as more cars zoom into the the WM parking lot at 12:30 in the morning.
Dammit a third time! I just want to go home and make a souffle for God's sake. I wander back to the check out lanes and spend about 15 minutes reading US magazine...Reese and Jake are officially a couple now? Halle Berry looks smokin' even in maternity clothes? Who knew!
Then I leave, frankly, nervous, through the dispersing crowd in the parking lot. I was really glad the cops who came to break things up parked directly next to my car. With my hyperactive imagination, I could see the headlines. "Mom Buys Sweet Potatoes for Preschool, Tragically Shot in WM Parking Lot." I know - overreactive, but, that's my nature.
I came home, put together the souffle, which is going to be so delicious, and popped it in the fridge to bake first thing in the morning. It will be good and fresh for school at 8. And now here I am - when I ought to be in bed, writing a mammoth monster mash of a blog.
Hope your weekends were fun, relaxing, fabulous...whatever you wanted them to be!
This weekend has been hectic. The last three months have been hectic, but I think this may just be the shape of things to come. I suppose I need to get used to it and give in to a caffiene addiction, something I have managed to avoid all these years.
Last week both my children were sick, and I was a little sick, then to add insult to injury, my son started sprouting a new tooth.There is nothing more pitiful than a baby whose nose is too stuffed up to nurse for comfort. He got a nasty ear infection in the process, which ruptured Wednesday and then again Thursday night, leaving him grumpy and clingy and hurting, poor little guy. By Friday, I was worn out, my shoulders hurt from toting 25 pounds of baby-man for days on end.
When the Naturalist (which is how I have decided to refer to my husband, because he is one, lol) got home from work we made a Wal Mart run. Along with groceries for us, I needed to get ingredients for that sweet potato souffle i mentioned before. Months ago, I bought a boxed sweet potato casserole mix there - maybe Betty Crocker? - because they were featuring it and I like to try new things. I'd give it maybe a 2.5 out of five stars, the texture was more like boxed mashed potatoes than sweet potatoes, it was pretty bland and not that much simpler to make than a homemade one. However, I was going to settle because I didn't want to take the time to gather all the other ingredients and I figured 'These are three year olds...are they really going to care?'
After scouring the store, I couldn't find the boxed mix anywhere. Dammit. This meant that 1) I would have to make the real thing and 2) I was going to have to come back to the madhouse again this weekend because I wasn't sure what ingredients I needed. It can't just be easy, right? Best laid plans and all that.
By the way, let's rewind two weeks to where I had my husband to sign me up to bring pumpkin pie to this feast. I was just going to get a frozen one and some Kool Whip and be done with it. We were told the list would be on the table Friday morning, so I asked him to leave early to take Peanut to school knowing if I didn't get on the list ASAP, all the easy things would be taken. Then he gets into a battle with Peanut over taking medicine, leaves 15 minutes late and pie is gone. Does he call me from the school to tell me what is left? No. He just calls from the road afterward and says "Pumpkin pie was taken but there are some other things on the list..." Dammit again! By the time I got there to pick up the Pea, ham, turkey, canned peas and sweet potato souffle were all that remained.
As much as I long for admiration in this great mom-petition, I wasn't about to make the meats with Thanksgiving just days away. And, as much as I wanted something easy, I wasn't about to send my daughter in with two pitiful cans of peas - no kid wants to be the one holding the veggies! So that left souffle. Sweet potatoes it is.
A quick fast forward across my weekend. Friday after the kids were in bed we began painting the bonus room. 20x25 feet with a 10 foot ceiling - it was a project. We were up till 2 working on it. We have 12 guests coming to stay between Dec 5th- 9th because of the Nutcracker, so we are trying to snazzy up the joint.
Saturday I held a YA autumn craft event at the library from 12-2. We made dream catchers for Native American History Month, and little beaded Indian corn pins and I brought food. You always bring food for YA events. I was expecting four teens and nine came, which was great. There were even two new guys, Jamal and, (I swear he told me this was his name) Starzan. Then I zoomed home and got Pea into her ballet outfit because from 3:30-4:30 she had a rehearsal for the Nutracker. Dinner/Bath/Bedtime and then more bonus room painting, this time till 1:30 in the morning.
Sunday ,Peanut had a birthday party to go to, 35 minutes away. The home was lovely and about 100 feet off the water on Lake Sinclair but the mom was a pretty bad hostess and the child tore through his massive pile of gifts like a badger on crack not even stopping to say thanks or read cards.
Which takes us to tonight. After the D/B/B routine, I was finally going back to WM to get the sweet potato stuff. Instead, I fell asleep in Peanut's bed after stories. At 10:45 the naturalist wakes me up and I wander to the bonus room trying to get lucid and find my shoes. I fall asleep sitting up on the couch. Then we need to sneak back and give Tiny Baby his ear drops and antibiotic and while comforting him afterwards...I fall asleep in his bed. The naturalist finally comes in and says "Are you trying to not make this casserole??" Hey now. I am tired, ok??
I drag ass out of bed and put on shoes, lamenting my lot in life and feeling intensely grumpy. My man isn't exactly sympathetic..."You could have done this earlier in the weekend" he says, as though I have just lain on a settee drinking chablis and reading gossip magazines for the past 48 hours. So I pick a fight with his highness the king of ingratefulness about where he put one of my bookshelves after we painted and then, I leave.
I cannot imagine what I looked like to people in WM. I was in grubby sweat pants and a UGA sweatshirt and no bra. My hair was all spiked up on one side of my head from all the sleeping I'd been doing. I hurried around grabbing the things I needed for the souffle, checked the list...Done!...then remembered we needed some lightbulbs. I turned out of an aisle and guess what was on the outset at the end...the freakin' instant sweet potato casserole crap!! Gah. I swear, this is so my lot in life. I looked at it for a second and was like 'F it. I am making the real thing now.'
When I go to leave there are a ton of thuggy-looking folks hanging out near the checkout lanes and I start wondering what is going on. I pay for my items and walk to the door where the white-haired greeter-lady who looks to be about two years older than dirt stops me and says "I wouldn't go out there yet. A bunch of those folks just ran out the door..." She steps to the sliding doors and says "Oooh yes. I need to call security - there's a gang fight right out there."
WHAT?? You have got to be kidding me. We live in a fairly rural area, so this was a little unexpected. I glance out and sure enough there probably 35 young adults crowded around a group of girls whaling on each other. They are about 15 feet from my car. There is a lot of yelling and people texting their friends and taking pics with their camera phones as more cars zoom into the the WM parking lot at 12:30 in the morning.
Dammit a third time! I just want to go home and make a souffle for God's sake. I wander back to the check out lanes and spend about 15 minutes reading US magazine...Reese and Jake are officially a couple now? Halle Berry looks smokin' even in maternity clothes? Who knew!
Then I leave, frankly, nervous, through the dispersing crowd in the parking lot. I was really glad the cops who came to break things up parked directly next to my car. With my hyperactive imagination, I could see the headlines. "Mom Buys Sweet Potatoes for Preschool, Tragically Shot in WM Parking Lot." I know - overreactive, but, that's my nature.
I came home, put together the souffle, which is going to be so delicious, and popped it in the fridge to bake first thing in the morning. It will be good and fresh for school at 8. And now here I am - when I ought to be in bed, writing a mammoth monster mash of a blog.
Hope your weekends were fun, relaxing, fabulous...whatever you wanted them to be!