Normally I am up between 6:30 and 7 to get E and L ready for school and sometimes drive them. Today I woke up - confused - at 8:40. My kids let me sleep in for TWO EXTRA HOURS. What a nice start to our week of vacation.
I woke up pissed off at A because do you know what Dream A did? He decided that he was gay and left me for his boyfriend. He was completely casual about it, too, like, "See ya!" with a shrug as he ambled out the door. It was like our years together and three children meant NOTHING to him! Can you believe it? So, Dream Me did what any rational person would do: I married someone I actively dislike to get back at him. I remember looking at my new husband thinking, "Um, I don't think this is going to work out EITHER but I don't want to be divorced TWICE."
(A is such a sport. He apologizes for what he does in dreams. Specifically, he says, "I'm very sorry for what Dream Me did.")
The girls and I went on a big grocery shopping trip after the Y - I have been quite lax in that category. I can go to our little neighborhood grocery store for basics, but sometimes I need more than four rolls of toilet paper. I warned E and L, my anti-grocery shopping daughters, that it was going to be a long intense trip, but that there might possibly be a donut at the end.
Here is one of the best things, I think, about being a strict parent who enforces rules with rare exceptions: those exceptions. We DID get donuts at the end of shopping and did we wait to eat them until after we had all eaten a healthy, well-balanced lunch? WE DID NOT. E gasped, "This is our LUNCH? Yum!" Tomorrow we are going to make our own pizzas for dinner and watch a movie on a WEDNESDAY and yes, I realize that this all sounds lame, but it's not lame to my kids. It's thrilling and rebellious in their eyes.
By the time we got home from shopping and our errands, I had one of the worst headaches I've ever had. I would blame it on the donut=lunch incident, but I get regular headaches that I can usually trace to caffeine consumption/sleep changes. (Yes, I work NIGHT SHIFT so you can imagine my headache history. OY.) It started at the Y and if I had taken ibuprofen right away, it would have been fine, but hours later it had morphed into a headache so awful that I could barely stumble around putting away the frozen food, actually yelled "SHUT UP!" at C for shrieking (please spell my name correctly on my Bad Mother Award), and collapsed on the couch with a pillow over my head. E crept in and curled up with me, stroking my head. L snuggled in by my feet and stroked my legs. Seriously, I have the best kids ever. (C did eventually forgive me. I do not think she'll be too scarred.)
I felt better after the Excedrin kicked in and managed to take a shower and drive the girls to karate. I spent a pleasant hour chatting with Juanito before coming home and making this amazing Tomato, Sausage, and Spinach Risotto. I made it almost exactly the way the recipe directs, although I did not use a wooden spoon to stir the sausage and onions. (That IS a bizarre instruction, isn't it?) I used a pound of sage sausage because that's what I had, omitted the oil, halved the butter, and used crushed tomatoes instead of diced. I served it as our main dish with salads on the side.
Ooh. I hate the headaches that cause the Bad Mommy to make an appearance. That happens in my house too - my kids have learned that when Bad Mommy does make an appearance, it's generally a sign that Regular Mommy doesn't feel well. They'll be extra good until the meds kick in and Regular Mommy returns.
Glad you let the nutrition slide and gave the kids a donut lunch. It's those little things that kids will remember. They'll be talking it about it forever "remember the time that mom made us go to the supermarket and it took forever? then we had donuts for lunch!" The smiles will be there even 30 years from now!
I'm always impressed with your dinners - I wish that a)I could cook as well as you do and b)I had kids that were adventurous enough to try new things. Unfortunately, I can't seem to cook my way out of a cardboard box and my kids are like my husband - who didn't eat anything more adventurous than meat and potatoes until he was in his 30s. Double sigh.
Posted by: Michelle | February 21, 2012 at 11:30 PM
Ugh, I hate headaches! Glad the medicine worked. The risotto recipe looks great too!
Posted by: Heather | February 22, 2012 at 06:56 AM
Hmmm, my husband never apologizes for stuff he does in my dreams, he just laughs at me...
Sorry about your headache, I've had migraines since I was a teen and it sucks. I've tried just about everything for mine and nothing really works. Glad yours is better.
Posted by: Pam | February 22, 2012 at 08:54 AM
I dreamed that my husband left me too! In my dream we had never actually been married, only engaged (despite the 5 children), and he told me the wedding was never going to happen. He was already dating other women he had met at work (3 of them!) but the two men I went out with wouldn't call me back. And! I was pregnant with #6!! And!! He told me I would be just fine on my own with six kids, that it wouldn't be any different from when he came home late for dinner.
I felt so betrayed. :-(
Glad you're feeling better.
Posted by: Jamie | February 22, 2012 at 10:48 AM