Summary Sunday: LFam's Exploits This Week

Sunday:  Muffin slept late this morning (thank goodness)!  For breakfast, we had sausage, eggs, and toast.  Muffin had apple and grapes, as well.  Josh began smoking the ham, as it had been decided and thawed for lunch meat this week as well as dinner tonight.  Josh and Muffin took down the Christmas tree while I worked on blog posts for the week (and posted the recipe for chicken spaghetti and chicken noodle soup).  I played Juice Cubes, my newest addiction, and organized some things on my phone and computer.  Muffin went outside to keep Josh company while Josh was smoking the ham and building the fire pit.  It looks great!  (both the ham and the firepit)  Then, they went out front to play (translation:  tire Muffin out).  For lunch, we had leftovers (chicken tacos and leftovers from last night) as well as some truly frightening combination of Muffin’s.

After lunch, Muffin and I enjoyed the fight of nap time (which for Muffin meant a three-hour nap after the fight ended).  I worked some more on the blog while he napped.  After the nap, it was time to prepare for dinner.  I made Peppery Parmesan Biscuits (looking forward to the leftovers with Sister Syrup tomorrow), and Josh prepped the ham (he had sliced it during Muffin’s nap), sweet potatoes (canned), and English peas (canned).  While he was prepping dinner, Muffin and I snuggled in the recliner with Tracker, my stuffed TY basset hound from when I was younger that Muffin has now inherited.  Josh also grilled some chicken for the fried rice (as well as for other uses in the week to come) Tuesday.

After dinner, Josh cut up the pineapple, and Muffin ate most of it (Josh and I snagged a bite or two).  Then, Josh and Muffin went to play outside again while I caught up on more blogging.  Then, they played a Bubble Game on the Wii.  Something seems to be wrong with the Wii (maybe it got dirty).

Speaking of dirty, earlier in the day when Muffin and Josh were outside playing and building, Daisy decided to roll around in Muffin’s turtle pool.  She had to be hosed down.

After supper, Muffin took a bath while Josh and I set up and started grinding a pork loin.  Then, Muffin joined us for some grinding fun, family-style.

Monday:  Today was spent prepping the week’s meals (chicken fried rice and red beans and rice–as well as two loaves of artisan bread!) and snuggling and playing with Muffin.  We played a game of toss the balloon, where, according to Muffin, the loser wouldn’t get a badge but the winner would get badges.  We watched Thomas and Friends Blue Mountain Mystery five times…I counted.  He even built a track for me.

Red beans and rice is one of his favorite things I cook.  Muffin tends to like beans (red beans, refried beans) as well as meat.  However, he licked the butter off of the bread instead of eating the bread!

Tuesday:  Switch up of the meal plan.  Again, plans are meant to be flexible.  I decided to redo red beans and rice (piggybacking off of the success with Muffin eating so much of it last night), and he ate two bowls!  Josh is going to do the final prep work of the fried rice tomorrow.  (He does a better job with the fried rice than I do)  Muffin didn’t have a nap today, so that meant a bit of a struggle for the rest of the day and a test of my patience.  I read a post by Crystal Paine at Money Saving Mom about patience and apologies in parenting, and it really hit the target today.  There are days when Muffin really tries my patience, and when he hasn’t had a nap (and I’ve been at school all day), those seem to be the most trying days.  We did a family movie viewing of Despicable Me 2, which we all love, this evening.

Wednesday:  Day three of eating red beans and rice.  Muffin fell asleep on the way home, and Josh was late getting home, so Josh and I decided we would just do leftovers again rather than make rice.  We will probably make the fried rice tomorrow night.  I worked some on the upcoming blog entries (including this one).

Muffin woke up during dinner and played with his trains for a bit (as well as the felt shapes and felt background I had made for the trip last summer).  Then, he took a bath.  I think he wanted to sleep with us because, after bedtime, he kept coming into our room.  He and Daisy must have sneaked into our room at some point last night because they are now cuddled up next to each other between Josh and me on the bed.

Thursday:  Muffin was a good boy for Granny and Granddaddy again today.  This is especially auspicious because it rained just about the time he was to get to go play outside in their backyard.  I’m very proud of him for his behavior today.  He was even good when I picked him up (something which almost never happens because he’s usually in “manic” nap time mode).  And then Josh got home.  And Muffin reverted to super-manic mode.  Josh was busy cooking supper (the fried rice rescheduled twice from Tuesday), and I was posting a blog post on tourtiere for Sunday.

Fried rice, for Muffin, was a bit of a struggle.  He did not like the fact that onions were in it.  So, Josh meticulously picked out the onion, and Muffin ate the rest.  Then, Muffin looked through the mail and found a fake car key that a local car company was using as part of a contest entry.  (Muffin likes keys.  He wanted to go try it on his Jeep to see if it worked)

After that, Muffin played trains while watching a Hot Wheels show on Netflix.

Friday:  The evening was a challenge to say the least.  We had planned to go to Rotolo’s, but Josh was late getting off, and there was a long wait.  In my antipathy about restaurants, I am becoming very impatient.  I can wait in lines at stores, but I don’t like having to wait for a table.  Having an active son tends to force the issue even more so.  After another false start at Santa Fe, we settled at Don Juanz, an old favorite of mine.

Saturday:  I awoke Saturday early and completed most of my shopping, returning home shortly after Muffin had awoken.  We then went to Brookshire’s and the library, and Muffin had a lot of fun.  We then went home.  Muffin saw the ducks in our neighborhood and wanted to feed them, so we decided to have a picnic at the playground and let him feed the ducks.  He had a blast, and the ducks are definitely not shy!  Then, we rested a bit before the parade.  Muffin fell asleep on the way home.