Not Inadequate

We ended up being at our destination for twenty-seven hours. Total drive time was about twenty-four hours. In the four days we were gone, there was not one day that we did not drive at least five hours.

I do not recommend this schedule.

The kids did a lot better than I thought they would, being away from their own beds and toys and potty seats - not to mention how much it must suck to be strapped into carseats like little Indy drivers. I had lots of different treats – coloring books, sticker books, travel games, and snacks – that I doled out one at a time to help with the boredom.

Jim went to the funeral by himself on Saturday, while I took the kids to WalMart to get even more treats and found a park to run around in. We visited with his family, and one of his aunts was kind enough to take us down the road so the kids could ride a horse, a tire swing, and chase each other around with sticks. 

I had told Jim that if he insisted on showing the kids farm animals, he would be in charge of answering all the questions. So I was a little disappointed not to see the well-endowed pig, which would have been followed by pointing, shrieking, about ten-thousand questions, and watching Jim squirm uncomfortably while I laughed at him mercilessly.

On Saturday night, we drove back to Dodge. We had planned on doing the tourist thing there on Sunday, but nothing was open so we hit the road for 8 hours of “are we there yet?” and “I have to PEE!” and “she has MY book!” and so on and so forth ad nauseum.

I am glad to be home. I missed you guys. Four days without my computer was torture.

Obviously, I need an iPad.

I’m back, dudes.

So. Kansas.

Last Thursday I spent all day doing laundry, going to WalMart to buy Travel Treats for the kids, and dithering about how the little people were going to get along without the myriad of tiny-butt potty options we have in our house. Which one should we take? The pink portable potty? The set-it-on-the-big-seat potty seat? The two-seats-in-one seat?

Potties = GAH.

We decided to drive at night as much as possible, in the hopes that the kids would sleep a little and be less insufferable. At 6pm, we got everyone in jammies and hit the road. We stayed in Dodge City (where Marshall Dillon narrated all my thoughts), and made it to our destination in eastern Kansas on Friday around 3 in the afternoon.

You know how The Pioneer Woman always posts those fantastic pictures of the hotel rooms she stays in? The hotel rooms that are probably $500 a night?

This won’t be quite like that.

I requested a king bed + sofa bed suite. I got a weird suite-like thing that was essentially two separate rooms connected by a gigantic, probably-just-filmed-some-adult-entertainment-here jacuzzi tub. The pull-out sofa was broken beyond repair and there were no cots available. The floor was crunchy and it smelled like Cow.

All this for the low! low! price of One Hundred and Sixty Dollars a night.

I took this pic with my cell phone, which is why it’s so awful. The haze is real. It’s cow. 

I thought a little kitchenette might be behind the wall.

I was mistaken.

See? Total porno tub, right? The plastic plants lend an air of class, though.

It was AWFUL. I was pretty upset until Jim pointed out I could blog about it.

That’s right, people.

Just because I’m not here doesn’t mean I don’t expect some bragging about last week’s accomplishments. Besides, everyone knows car knitting is great for getting stuff done. I’ll probably get so much finished, I’ll have to space it out over several weeks so you’re all not completely embarrassed.

HAH!

I suppose I’ll be in for some severe mocking if I don’t at least produce a hat or something….

And all you NaNoWriMo people, feel free to brag about how many words you have written. Even attempting to write a novel is an amazing accomplishment!

So, come on bloggy buddies! We only a few more weeks until the end of the year! I can’t be the only one with a giant To-Do list.

Jim’s grandmother died this week. She was very old and sick toward the end, and I think they were all relieved to see her suffering stop. But this means a trip to Kansas on short notice and explaining the concept of a funeral to my almost-six year old.

Anyway, hopefully I will be back on Tuesday. This is the same group who let their two-year old drink beer and play with balloons, so I might even have a few good stories. The last time we went, we saw a pig that was quite possibly the most…erm…well-endowed animal I had ever seen. I am hoping he has been turned into bacon by now and I don’t have to explain THAT. Especially to my daughter.

Jeez, I can just picture the shrieking and pointing now.

We found this guy on the side of our house a few weeks ago. He was cute – I love praying mantises. His little head kept turning to watch us watching him.

I realized yesterday that I have been home schooling my kids for a little over a year now.

Things have changed so much since then, I can’t believe it has been ONLY a year. Was there a time when I did not spend so much time thinking and reading and talking about education and school and maximizing my children’s life experiences?

I don’t remember. What did I think about instead? Anguish over potty training and breastfeeding, probably.

I wish I had something Sage and Important to say. But while I remain committed to home educating my children with every fiber in my being…it is a very long road and I have only just stepped foot on it.

Somewhat ignorant of the thousands of other options, I started with a typical school-at-home mentality. Lately though, I have been drawn slowly and inexorably toward a much more relaxed philosophy. I’ve realized that my kids do not have to be dragged kicking and screaming toward learning.

Observing them made me see that a) they are practically insatiable when it comes to learning stuff they care about; and b) if I give them the right tools and get out of the way, they do most of the heavy lifting. So the question then becomes, what can I do to keep that enthusiasm alive?

I’m pretty sure I am heading down the child-led path. At least in these early years.

Dang it.

Control Freak Deb is just going to have to lighten up.

It is in fact nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom; without this it goes to wrack and ruin without fail. It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty.

- Albert Einstein

In my eternal quest to find a vegetable that my Pasta-tarian son will eat, I am now experimenting with sweet potatoes. I’d be happy if I found two or three veggies he liked, so I need to make sure they are really worth it, nutritionally speaking. Sweet potatoes are ranked as one of the most nutrient-dense vegetables there are. I got him to agree to it by pasting on a smile and chirping that we were “going to be making our own french fries at home!”

So! Clever!

I had some not-great batches, which were deemed Not Crunchy Enough, but they ate enough of even the failed attempts that I was encouraged to keep going. Last night, I made the best batch so far.

I sliced them thinly on the side of my cheese grater that I’ve never used before. There might have been some cursing that the stupid slicer part was too close to the counter and I kept smashing my knuckles.

Then there might have been a moment when I decided I should totally buy a food processor. You know, for health reasons.

For the children.

Then I tossed them very lightly in olive oil (some of my previous attempts failed because I used too much oil and the chips got soggy), spread them out in a single layer on a sheet tray, cranked the oven to 500 and hoped for the best. They definitely got nice and crispy, but I almost ruined them by turning the oven down and stirring them too much. Jim was scared of the dark brown, but those ones were the best. After they came out, I sprinkled them with a little salt.

My people LOVED THEM!

SCORE!

Seriously, there are no words for how happy I am about this. Big refuses to eat most veggies, and has already informed me he hates the ones all the normal kids like (unless Normal Kids are some kind of mythological creature? I certainly don’t have any). No corn, peas, or green beans for this kid. He doesn’t even like mashed potatoes.

No mashed potatoes! 

It’s just wrong. Mashed potatoes are a sign God loves us.

Amen.

But wait! It gets better! I had a brilliant idea for the second sweet potato dish of the evening. I sliced it into thicker chip/strips and did the same olive oil/sheet pan routine.

But then….

When they came out of the oven…

I SPRINKLED THEM WITH CINNAMON SUGAR!

Well, maybe sprinkled is a bit of an understatement. I started out sprinkling, but it was such a good idea, I quickly switched to the More Is Better approach.

It was crazy talk!

And it was super delicious. They were gone in a matter of minutes.

Another Vegetable Victory!

I told Big later that some people melt marshmallows over their sweet potatoes. His eyes widened and he agreed we might want to give that a try.

This post is linked to Meatless Monday, Tasty Tuesdays, Tuesdays at the Table, and Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays.

I love to vote. I like the feeling of making my own teeny-tiny voice heard. I don’t vote early, or do the mail-in thing. I like to go stand in line, fill in the little ovals with those miniature pencils (or at least that’s how it is here in Backwardville, Colorado) and see my ballot get sucked into the little box. It makes me feel like an American in its own special way. Like going to a baseball game. Except without the beer.

So, Campaign-Phonebots, I promise to vote. Now please STOP CALLING ME!  GAH!

I swear I have gotten at least 10 recorded messages today, and it’s only 3:30.