Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Like mother, like daughter

After packing candy corn left from Halloween in my husband's lunch box this morning, I promised I would get some cookies made for a fresher dessert tomorrow.  But life happened and at nine tonight I realized that I had some cooking to do.  Happily I realized I had all the ingredients for no-bake Scotcheroos and wouldn't have to stay up all night shuffling cookie sheets.

Now, while positively delicious, Scotcheroos are not health food.  In fact, there is not one un-processed ingredient in them.  And while measuring out the one cup (!!!) of light corn syrup, I started to have a little mommy-guilt over my ingredients list.

But then a happy memory of corn syrup came to me.  When I was little (and still now, actually)  I didn't like milk on my cereal.  Sometimes, though, my mom would let me drizzle Karo syrup over Corn Chex or Rice Krispies.  That I liked.  Seriously though?  I can't believe she let me do it. 

Then I had to smile, because I remembered brown sugar sandwiches.  "What are brown sugar sandwiches?" you might be thinking.  Just what the sound like, my friend.  White sandwich bread spread with margarine, a fair layer of brown sugar pressed onto it, topped with another margarine covered slice of bread, and then eaten for lunch. 

In my mother's defense, we didn't eat either of these things on a regular basis.  But it was definitely not a one time thing.  For just a minute, while I was squeezing the last of the corn syrup out of the bottle, I wondered what she was thinking, feeding us food like that. 

And then I remembered that I'm the one who put chocolate chips in the peanut butter baked oatmeal I served my kids for dinner last month.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Jumping into the New Year?

It seems that most of my Facebook friends and the bloggers I read are full swing into getting their homes straightened out from the holidays and organizing themselves for the year ahead.  That sounds good to me, sort of.  But maybe not yet.

My oldest son doesn't go back to school until Monday.  That gives us three more free days.  Three days where I can sit on the floor and watch him build the Lego vehicles he received as Christmas gifts.  Three more days were the kids and I can snuggle on the couch and watch a video in the afternoon, since, after all, we are on vacation.  Three more days in which I can let dinner go a little later than usual, because if we aren't in bed on time it's no big deal. 

I intentionally took a step back from homemaking starting the Friday before Christmas so that I could enjoy the holiday season with my family.  I am so glad that I did.  It's been so nice to say yes to my daughter's request to read a story, or to play with the boys just because they asked. 

Our pantry is empty, our entertainment center needs dusting, and the bathrooms could use a good scrubbing.  But those things will wait for Monday morning when Nick and Ben head back to school and the little kids and I get back into our weekly routine.  Today we're still on vacation.