Magic and Mayhem

Turns out I am a short order cook after all.

Daryl took the baby on a drive to give me a break today and I was hanging out with the older 3. The girls were videotaping cooking and fashion shows but I never know when to leave well enough alone so I pulled Victoria aside to do some quick mental math and then told her we should get started on organizing her cell lapbook before it all gets scattered and lost.

She and I started on that, planning cancer pages and mini books and what part goes where. Jack and Anna got caught up in the conversation and were totally hooked when they saw a photograph of white blood cells attacking a cancer cell. It is a cool picture.

So then Anna started making up cartoon books of all the kinds of “fighter cells” and their work protecting the body. Jack started grilling me about what foods were good for the fighter cells (colorful fruits and veggies mostly) and good for the bad cells (sugar was top of the list).

Then he wanted to know the healthiest food on earth. Victoria told him breastmilk and I told him different foods helped the body in different ways. I told him calcium was needed for strong bones and he could get that from milk or broccoli and also help his bones by walking a lot. At that point he started running in place. <G> I told him eggs were a good protein for helping him grow keeping his body working well.

And on and on, all the while I’m cutting and gluing with Victoria and Anna is chattering away about her cartoon superfighter cells.

Meanwhile, Victoria got frustrated with all the “help” and mayhem. She kept wanting to know if they couldn’t both go somewhere else. Nope. Apparently not.

Jack is going through some sort of newly-five insecurity and ended up feeling picked upon by his big sisters. Much angst followed, which was finally abated with the suggestion that mama could make him a scrambled egg to make it all better. Easy enough! It sounded good to me.

Then Victoria asked if she could have a poached egg, since we have this cool silicone egg poacher. Hmm. I didn’t particularly feel like getting out 18 more things and starting another set of eggs but decided fine. I can do that.

Then Annalee wanted a hard boiled egg. Nope, I told her. Too much trouble. Turns out she meant a hard-yolk fried egg. Oh fine.

So I was making two scrambled eggs, two poached eggs and two fried eggs (no runny yolks!) when Jack started to wail that only HE was supposed to get eggs. According to Jack, his sisters insult him and should not get eggs.

After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, his sisters finally made it all better (they really are sweet to him) and he allowed them to have eggs. What selflessness!

As I was cooking, Victoria came up to me and said, “Don’t worry, Mom. When I’m a rich doctor, all your good mothering will pay off.”

At last, the eggs were cooked, the lapbook was scooped up into a folder for another time, and I grabbed a can of something not at all good for my immune system and announced “I’m on break!”.

I got up to the computer just in time to start to blog before Daryl came home with the baby. Break time is over!

I think my brain is poached, scrambled AND fried.

Have a good day!